WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States must avoid repeating the mistakes of the Iraq war and avoid attempting to take over nations where there is chaos, President Barack Obama said in his last State of the Union address.
"We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis… It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq — and we should have learned it by now," Obama said on Tuesday evening.
The president added that US interventionism is "a recipe for quagmire" costing "American blood and treasure" and is ultimately weakening the country.
“Priority number one is protecting the American people and going after terrorist networks,” Obama stated on Tuesday.
