(London Daily Mail) A former high-ranking Obama administration official writes in his forthcoming memoir that the White House was 'so eager to rid itself of Iraq' that advisers steered the president toward withdrawing all U.S troops instead of trying to ink an agreement to let them legally stay past 2011.
Leon Panetta, Obama's first CIA director and his second Defense secretary, writes in the book 'Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace' that Obama's inner circle lacked a sense of urgency about finalizing a deal with Iraq's then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
'To my frustration,' Panetta writes, 'the White House coordinated the negotiations but never really led them,' leaving the Defense and State Departments to proceed 'without the President’s active advocacy.'
Advertisement - story continues below
