David Petraeus calls for safe havens of militants in Syria

David Petraeus, former CIA director and retired Army general, has sharply criticized the Obama administration’s policy in Syria even as the White House is considering new options to revamp the strategy.

Petraeus, appearing before a congressional panel Wednesday in his first public testimony since resigning as the CIA director in 2012, said the United States should establish safe havens inside Syria where US-allied militants could freely operate and additional forces could be trained under the protection of American and allied air power.

The former top military commander in charge of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the progress achieved so far in the war against the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group has been “inadequate.”

He said “some elements of the right strategy are in place” while others are under-resourced or missing.

Petraeus recommended that the United States take a harsher stance against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Regarding Iraq, Petraeus urged the Obama administration to embed small American teams on the ground to call in airstrikes on the part of Iraqi forces.

“In my judgment, increased support for the Iraqi security forces, Sunni tribal forces and Kurdish Peshmerga is needed, including embedding US adviser elements down to the brigade headquarters level of those Iraqi forces fighting ISIS,” he said.

“I also believe that we should explore use of joint tactical air controllers with select Iraqi units to coordinate coalition airstrikes for those units,” he added.

Petraeus began his testimony by an apology for his high-profile extramarital affair with his married biographer Paula Broadwell. Petraeus had also shared classified information with Broadwell—an acknowledgment that forced him to resign as the director of the CIA.

“Four years ago, I made a serious mistake — one that brought discredit on me and pain to those closest to me,” he said. “It was a violation of the trust placed in me and a breach of the values to which I had been committed throughout my life.”

The testimony came as the Obama administration has come under withering bipartisan criticism over its failed strategy in Iraq and Syria.

The commander of US operations in Iraq and Syria, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, set off a firestorm last week when he told the same Senate committee that the Pentagon’s $500 million training program had only yielded a handful of “moderate” militants in Syria.

The “train-and-equip” program, conducted by US Special Forces in Turkey and Jordan, initially aimed at producing about 5,400 allied militants a year as a proxy ground force in Syria.

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