Panetta Warns: Trump's Lack of Thought on Syria Dangerous

President Donald Trump hasn't taken the time to think out what the consequences of military action would bring when it comes to Syria, and that makes this period in time a "dangerous moment," former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Thursday.

"This is a dangerous moment with this president who hasn't taken the time to think out what are the consequences of military action here," Panetta told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," while discussing the president's response to the suspected chemical attack last weekend in Syria.

"What is it going to mean for the United States? What is our long-term strategy? All of that requires thought, it requires consideration. It does not require a reflex action."

The most serious responsibility of a commander in chief, Panetta continued, is that a decision must be made on "whether or not we take military action, because that involves lives and it involves national security interests of the United States."

Under normal circumstances, under other administrations, there would be a process for dealing with the Syria crisis, but not now, said Panetta, who served President Barack Obama as Defense Secretary and CIA Director, and before that as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff.

"Normally, under any other administration there would be a process for dealing with this crisis, where it would go through the National Security Council, options would be presented," he said. "The Defense Secretary, Secretary of State, others would have their input. They would present those options to the president and the president would decide what steps are going to be taken."

But instead, Trump is a president who operates "by instinct and gut reaction" rather than by normal process, "and that makes it very unpredictable."

"As a result of that, it's a dangerous moment because we don't know what the consequences of whatever action that he takes are going to be."

Panetta on Thursday also said Trump should have never said he wanted to remove troops from Syria, as that may have sent a signal that the United States did not care what happened there, and that was dangerous.

"If we're going to be able to have some kind of the influence in Syria, and it is a chaotic situation, it is important for the United States to have a presence there and to indicate that we have a role to play,"

However, he added, the fundamental issue is that the United States has "never had a strategy with regards to Syria," but instead has reacted to moments of crisis, and that means "we've been somewhat ambivalent about how to handle that chaos."

Rather than developing strategy or trying to play a role in forcing Syria to decide on a settlement that would remove President Bashar assad from office, the United States has been hitting ISIS on the side without having an overall strategy, Panetta said.

"We don't have a strategy because I think we were reacting to what was happening in Syria and there was a fear that we didn't want to get entrapped by another Middle Eastern war," said Panetta. "I understand that but at the same time the fact is once you say Assad has to step down, once you see that there are other forces at play in Syria. The reality is the United States does have a national interest in what happens in Syria because it relates to the overall status in the Middle East."

Meanwhile, Panetta said Trump is heading into a dangerous path when it comes with dealing with Russia, including with his decision to taunt the superpower through a tweet with the threat of missile strikes.

The administration, he said, must determine what its primary objective is for dealing with Syria, including working with other countries to force Assad to never use chemical weapons again.

"That should be the goal but I'm not sure a lot of thought has been given to that," Panetta said. "If we hit [Assad] militarily now without any kind of strategy, what will happen is in a few months he'll do it again."