Posted on October 24, 2012

Former Obama National Security Adviser: No Progress In Middle East Under Obama

PBS's CHARLIE ROSE: I want to go first to General Jones then to Zbigniew Brzezinski because these are the kind of questions you had to face when you took office in 2008, give me a sense of how you looked at them and how the president looked at them and how he tried to act within the context of new ideas.



GENERAL JIM JONES: "Well, the whole setup for analyzing the world that we face was based on an initial premise that we needed to size up the problems, talk to the people that historically were causing us difficulties, and see if there was some way to proceed ahead, as we now know, in some cases we made some progress; I would cite the START Treaty as an example of a successful couple of years of hard work with the Russians. On the other hand, with the Middle East and Iran, we’re probably right back where we were three or four years ago. So, it is great to be able to come in and try to think strategically, but you’re really many times driven by the tactics of the moment. You find yourself responding to the tactical impulses that face us. And it’s very hard to keep that strategic focus." (PBS’s “Charlie Rose,” 10/23/12)