Ex-NSA director Michael Hayden: ISIS airstrikes are like 'casual sex'
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Here's a comparison you probably haven't heard yet about the United States' airstrikes on ISIS holdings in the Middle East:
"The reliance on air power has all of the attraction of casual sex," retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden told U.S. News & World Report. "It seems to offer gratification but with very little commitment. We need to be wary of a strategy that puts emphasis on air power and air power alone."
Hayden is a former director of both the CIA and the National Security Agency, and he has been critical of President Barack Obama's response to the Islamist extremist group thus far. There was nothing casual about State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf's response to Hayden's statements on Friday, though.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"General Hayden, all joking aside, knows very well the counter-terrorism tools that we have at our disposal from when he was CIA director — some of which we obviously don't utilize any more," she said.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
