In an interview with CBS to promote his new book, Dick Cheney blamed Obama for ISIS, defends the Iraq War, and says we need to return to Iraq. Below is a verbatim portion of the story, which appears at Sharp talk from Dick and Liz Cheney, as CBSnews.com:
Portion of CBS article:
[Dick] Cheney is renewing his criticism of Mr. Obama with the help of his daughter, Liz, a former State Department official and one-time Senate candidate. In their upcoming book, “Exceptional,” to be published by Simon & Shuster (a division of CBS), they accuse President Obama of retreating from the world’s problems, diminishing America’s power as the threat of terrorism rises.
. . .
[CBS reporter Lee] Cowan asked, “Are you really laying the spread of ISIS at the President’s feet?”
“I think the spread of ISIS was the direct result of the vacuum that was created when the Obama administration withdrew all our forces from Iraq,” Cheney said. “We turned out backs on Iraq. We had Iraq in good shape by the time we left office. Even Obama said as much.”
Initially, it was President Bush who agreed with a troop withdrawal deadline, although he did so reluctantly. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had objected to the idea of any U.S. troops staying beyond 2011.
“While you talk about the problem being that there was no stay-behind force, some would argue that the real problem was that we went in to Iraq in the first place,” said Cowan.
“Well, I’m well known as somebody who has strongly defended that as the right thing to do. And I still believe that,” he replied.
“You wouldn’t change anything?”
“No,” Cheney said. “There was widespread support at the time, and it was justified.”
That support was based largely on the administration’s argument that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction — an argument that later proved to be wrong. That false premise became a key issue in Mr. Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
“Does the President get any credit for trying — while still recognizing the sacrifice that was made — to end two wars that had gone on longer than even you thought they would go on? Does he get any credit for trying to end that?”
“Well, I gave him credit, for example, when they got Osama bin Laden,” Cheney said. “But you don’t end a war — if you end a war by just walking away from it, that’s victory for the other side.”
To read the full CBS story, click Sharp talk from Dick and Liz Cheney.
Watch our discussion on how Cheney is still trying to dictate foreign policy:
