Four-star Gen. James Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps, criticized the Obama administration over Iraq and urged against isolationist foreign policy while speaking at a Brookings Institution event.
"We may think we're done with all of these nasty, thorny, tacky little things that are going on around the world -- and I'd argue that if you're in that nation, it's not a tacky, little thing for you--We may think we're done with them, but they're not done with us," Amos said.
Amos argued against depicting U.S. intervention as becoming "the world's policeman"--an expression Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) has been known to use--calling it a "bad term."
The general said the United States is largely a force for good in the world, and that it has a duty to intervene in other nations since "We're probably the only country in the world that has the resources and the capability to be able to do some of this that others can't."
Amos also blamed the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq for the growth of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq in the region, saying, "I have a hard time believing that had we been there, and worked with the government, and worked with parliament, and worked with the minister of defense, the minister of interior, and the governance and rule of law, all that stuff, I don't think we'd be in the same shape we're in today."