![General Keane Refutes Carly Fiorina's Claim That He Was Forced Into Early Retirement By Obama [screen shot FBN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Screen-Shot-2015-12-16-at-10.31.15-AM-e1450279918223.jpg "General Keane Refutes Carly Fiorina's Claim That He Was Forced Into Early Retirement By Obama [screen shot FBN]")
Gen. Jack Keane, former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army, refutes Carly Fiorina’s claim that he was forced into early retirement by President Obama.
During Tuesday night’s debate, Fiorina said, “One of the things that I would immediately do in addition to defeating them here at home is bring back the warrior class. Petraeus, McCrystal, Mattis, Keane, Flynn, every single one of these generals I know, every one was retired early because they told President Obama things that he didn’t want to hear.”
Wednesday on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co,” host Stuart Varney asked Keane, “Did you in fact General give advice to President Obama which he didn’t want to hear and didn’t take?
Keane insisted, “No, I’ve never spoken to the President, that’s not accurate. And I never served this administration, I served the previous administration.”
Varney followed up, “You were the guy behind the surge, is that correct?”
“Yes,” Keane explained. “I and some others, to be quite frank about it. I did have the opportunity to present a new strategy to President Bush in the Oval office with his staff present and also with some others that had alternative proposals, and yes, he did make a decision to go forward with it. But I was not the only person who influenced that decision.”
Varney then asked, “But you were not present in the administration of President Obama when he took all troops out of Iraq? You were not present then, but your advice would have been, keep somebody there?”
“Oh yes, absolutely,” Keane said. “It was a strategic decision that we’re still paying the price for to this day, it gave birth to the rise of ISIS also our decisions in Syria and not backing the moderate rebels when they had the momentum, they wanted our help before the Iranians came in and created the stalemate in Syria which gave ISIS the opportunity to move into a sanctuary unimpeded.”
“It was Al-Bagdadi’s number one strategic decision that took him from being a few hundred fighters in Iraq to build a terrorist army two years later and invade Iraq. Actually stunning what took place as a result of those decisions,” Keane explained.
The Fiorina campaign has not responded to The DC’s request for comment.
