Most Americans (except loyal Fox viewers) will tell you that the U.S. invasion of Iraq has always been a monumental disaster and the country has never been stable after we invaded. A new poll conducted by NBC/WSJ shows 71% of Americans believe the Iraq war wasn't worth it, which is way up from 59% in 2013. Ask any American and most will say George Bush was the worst president we've had in a very long time, but if you ask Dick Cheney about those things, you'll get a very different answer. He called Obama the worst president of his lifetime (although he's against impeachment) and then painted a rosy post war Iraq for himself when he left office.
Cheney believes Obama is "the worst president of my lifetime" and that "Jimmy Carter might have been a better President," but impeaching him is not going to accomplish much.
I'm not in love with many moves President Obama has made, as I've written before, but what George Bush and Dick Cheney did to this country after a national tragedy was more than tragic. It was criminal. And to think that he's out there lying about the state of Iraq after he ordered the torching of a country that didn't attack us is mind-boggling.
The Iraq That Dick Cheney Actually Left Behind
Former Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on CNN on Tuesday, once more claiming that the Iraq his administration left behind was a “very stable” one. In actuality, on the waning days of the Bush administration, Iraq was still a highly violent place, with car bombs exploding and government officials targeted.
“I think when we left office, we had in Iraq a very stable situation,” Cheney told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We’d put together a program with a surge the a decision the president made and by the time we left office, Iraq was in good shape.”
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Contrary to his claims, the Iraq that Cheney and the rest of the administration parted with was not one that was in good shape. During the Iraq War, McClatchy’s Washington Bureau ran a daily round-up of violence that had taken place in the country. While stressing that it was not a comprehensive list, on January 18, 2009 — two days before the Obama administration took office — at least six roadside bombs were detonated in Iraq, five in Baghdad and another in Mosul. Nineteen people were wounded in those explosions.--
“I guess what I’m asking, aren’t some of the decisions made by you and President Bush responsible for what is going on right now?” Tapper asked.
“Are you saying it’s all Malaki and Obama?” Cheney readily agreed. “I think it’s primarily Malaki and Obama,” he said. “That’s what I believe and that’s what the history books will show.”
When you break a country apart that has a long and bloody history of violence between clans and then leave office, you're still responsible for everything that occurs afterwards. It's not like it's easy to pick up the pieces and he knows it. I think he counted on time passing to soften up the American opinion of himself and his legacy, but that's never going to happen.
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