Dick Cheney is attacking President Obama on his handling of the growing civil war in Iraq, prompting a strong response from many who point out that Cheney not only has a terrible record on predictions on Iraq, but also bears much blame for the current situation.
Cheney recently teamed up with daughter Liz to write an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that attacks Barack Obama’s handling of the Middle East. In the editorial, Dick Cheney claims that Obama helped bring on the current civil war by refusing to allow troops to remain stationed in Iraq.
“Mr. Obama had only to negotiate an agreement to leave behind some residual American forces, training and intelligence capabilities to help secure the peace,” the Cheneys wrote. “Instead, he abandoned Iraq and we are watching American defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.”
But as Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman notes, it was actually George W. Bush who signed the agreement mandating that all troops be out of the country by 2011. Waldman adds that the Maliki government wanted all troops out of the country by that point, and would not have allowed Obama to keep troops stationed there even if he wanted.
Waldman also pointed out that Dick Cheney has been wrong on just about every prediction about Iraq so far. He was wrong that the nation had weapons of mass destruction, wrong when he claimed there was a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, and wrong in 2005 when he said the insurgency was in its “last throes.”
And now, as the cascade of misery and death and chaos he did so much to unleash rages anew, Cheney has the unadulterated gall to come before the country and tell us that it’s all someone else’s fault, and if we would only listen to him then we could keep America safe forever. How dumb would we have to be to listen?
Others have joined in criticizing Dick Cheney for his views on Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid came out against American involvement, saying that Cheney’s word means nothing when it comes to Iraq.
“If there’s one thing this country does not need, is that we should be taking advice from Dick Cheney on wars,” he said in statements on the Senate floor. “Being on the wrong side of Dick Cheney is being on the right side of history. To the architects of the Iraq War who are now so eager to offer their expert analysis, I say, Mr. President, thanks, but no thanks. Unfortunately, we have already tried it your way and it was the biggest foreign policy blunder in the history of the country.”
But it’s likely that Dick Cheney will only grow more vocal in his criticism of Obama and support for action in Iraq. He and daughter Liz have formed a group called The Alliance for a Strong America intended to attack the president on foreign policy.