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Criticism of the Obama administration’s Middle East strategy is no longer restricted to the president’s usual opponents. Former defense secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta �� the latest in a series of departed senior officials to go public with their misgivings �� now suggests that the president’s own policies helped make possible the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. “When we stepped out of Iraq,�� Panetta observed in a recent interview, “we created this vacuum�� �� and ISIS is currently filling the space.

Can the same administration now make good its mistakes and repair the damage? Will a strategy limited to coalition aerial bombardment and ancillary assistance to local fighters be sufficient to “degrade and destroy�� ISIS, or are the U.S. military officials and regional allies who argue that ground troops will be required correct? In either case, to what extent are longstanding, region-wide issues �� like the anti-Sunni policies pushed by Iranian assets in Iraq and Syria �� a fundamental obstacle to complete success against ISIS?

To address these and other directly related questions of Middle East strategy and diplomacy, ����� hosted a timely discussion on October 17 with Lee Smith, Andrew J. Tabler, Michael Pregent, and Hussain Abdul-Hussain.

Event hashtag: #HudsonISIS