Leon Panetta Dellvers Direct Responses to Andrea Mitchell @ 92ndY

Leon Panetta's talk last night @ the 92ndY was timely, important, direct & engaging.  It was a privilege to be in the audience to hear NBC's chief foreign correspondent, Andrea Mithcell, ask pertinent, pressing questions to Leon Panetta at this precarious time.  Mitchell, is a former chief White House reporter & regular guest on "Meet the Press."  Mitchell's questions to Panetta were very direct & left Panetta free to answer.  Panetta, former dir. of the CIA & sec. of defense under Obama & Clinton's chief of staff, was well versed & cogent in his responses.  Panetta likened ISIS overtaking borders on Turkey yesterday to al qaeda's intention of attacking the U.S. "ISIS is the greatest fanatical terrorist threat."  He believes "the U.S. will be in a long & sustained war with ISIS."  Asked if removing troops from Iraq left a vacuum allowing ISIS to burgeon, Panetta answered, yes.  He maintained U.S. troops should have continued to be a presence in Iraq & Afghanistan.  Panetta faulted Obama with not following through on his threat to take action on Syria after al-assad gased & killed thousands. Panetta believes Obama gave a "terrible message to the world" by remaining passive, abetting aggressive leaders like Putin.  Panetta advised the U.S. to apply heavy sanctions against Russia & provide military equipment & financial support to the Ukranian people.  Panetta is vehement against allowing Iran to develop nuclear capabilities.  Tthe greatest threat to our nation," according to Panetta, "is the dysfunction in D.C." Obama must fight hard every day to get things through Congress & maintain a strong leadership role or the U.S. will be led instead crisis by crisis.  Panetta quoted Theodore Roosevelt "the best thing you can do is make the right decision, the 2nd best thing is to make the wrong decision & the worst thing you can do is make no decision."