Foreign Policy Initiative co-founder Dan Senor told the cast of Morning Joe that, thanks to the "critical mistakes" of not intervening in Syria and withdrawing from Iraq, "We now have this big ungovernable space along the Syrian-Iraqi border that will have all the attributes of Afghanistan pre-9/11, but on much more valuable real estate, much more strategically important part of the world."
Regarding U.S. intervention, Senor advised, "Even if you don't believe the human catastrophe is reason enough, the strategic interests are there."
"It's disappointing, its very frustrating for me to say this," Senor said, "because we always believed early on that, as we stood up an Iraqi government, as there were Iraqi elections, as we stood up an Iraqi military, over time this government and military would be able to stand on its own. What we've learned over time is that's not the case. There's this complex relationship in Iraq between security and politics. And if the government cannot provide basic security, the politics are a mess."
Senor urged U.S. presence in Iraq, "not combat forces necessarily, but in some way," in order to exert influence over Maliki, rather than letting him turn to Iran for help. "The Iranian government is more than happy to fill that void."