WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Top US military leaders deliberately opposed and tried to subvert the Obama administration’s policy to remove Assad, veteran journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in an article published in the London Review (LBR) of Books on Monday.
"Hagel also understood that toppling Assad was insanely foolish," Todd told Sputnik on Tuesday when asked about Hersh’s revelations.
Hagel had carried the United States through the most dangerous times in Syria, illustrating how being Secretary of Defense is a "thankless job," she added.
Obama, Todd claimed, is trying to stave off intense pressure to call for Assad's removal during this election season because he does not want another Iraq.
Todd noted, Hersh documented in 2014 how former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director David Petraeus and others "nearly successfully dragged us into a war to topple Assad," in an LBR piece entitled "The Red Line and the Rat Line."
In his nearly 7,000-word article, Hersh wrote that the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, then led by General Martin Dempsey, decided to deliberately subvert Obama’s foreign policy and form a secret alliance with Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
