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Petraeus Warns Brexit Will Endanger The West

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Guy Bentley Research Associate, Reason Foundation
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Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus warns that a UK exit from the European Union would hamper the West’s ability to deal with terrorist threats.

The British people will decide Jun. 23 whether the country will remain in the European Union or whether they will opt for Brexit and forge a new path outside the EU. (RELATED: What is Brexit? Everything You Need To Know About Britain’s EU Referendum)

“Given the dangers and challenges that threaten us around the world, this is a moment when the west and its institutions, including the EU, need to be drawing together – not pulling apart,” said Petraeus, writing in The Sunday Telegraph.

“At least from a national security standpoint, none of the problems the US and UK face will become easier to solve if the UK is out of the EU; on the contrary, I fear that a ‘Brexit’ would only make our world even more dangerous and difficult to manage.”

Petraeus’s view is not universally shared among the defense and intelligence community.

“I don’t know if the European Union contributes a great deal to espionage. Europe has divided its governance between things done in Brussels, at the Union level, and things done back in national capitals,” former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden told Sky News(RELATED: Would The UK Be Safer From Terrorism After Brexit? What The Experts Say)

Hayden’s view mirrored those Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of the UK’s secret intelligence service MI6.

“Brexit would bring two potentially important security gains: the ability to dump the European Convention on Human Rights — remember the difficulty of extraditing the extremist Abu Hamza of the Finsbury Park Mosque — and, more importantly, greater control over immigration from the European Union,” Dearlove wrote in Prospect on March 23.

British politicians supporting Brexit have not taken kindly to interventions from outsiders. More than 100 members of parliament signed a letter to the U.S. ambassador in London warning President Barack Obama to avoid meddling in the EU referendum.

The letter, which was organised by the former secretary of state for defense (and a prominent supporter of Britain exiting the E.U.), says Obama’s open support for the “Remain campaign” would be “highly damaging” and would erode the “validity of the result.”

Obama will visit the U.K. on April 22 and is expected to endorse the Remain campaign at a press conference with Prime Minister David Cameron. (RELATED: More Than 100 UK Politicians Tell Obama To Keep Out Of Brexit Debate)

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