Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that President Obama's failure to back up his "red line" on Syria's chemical weapons with military force was "damaging" to U.S. credibility.
"Once you draw that line, and he did, then I think the credibility of the United States is on the line," Panetta told Yahoo! Global News anchor Katie Couric. "So once they used chemical weapons and we had proof they used chemical weapons, and 1,400 people--men, women, children--died as a result of using chemical weapons, then it was important for us to stand by our word."
In his new memoir, Worthy Fights, Panetta writes that "by failing to respond, it sent the wrong message to the world."
"It sent a mixed message, not only to Assad, not only to the Syrians, but to the world," Panetta said. "You do not want to establish, in the world, an issue with regard to the credibility of the United States to stand by what we say we're going to do."
