Obama not to blame for Iraq invasion

Since ISIS swarmed practically unopposed into Iraq, the Republicans responsible for the Iraq War have emerged from obscurity, guns blazing. It's all Obama's fault, they claim, because he did not leave some American troops there when the deadline to pull out (negotiated by President Bush) came at the end of 2011.

But they minimize the fact that, at the time, Iraq virtually threw out the Americans. How would you like it if foreign troops remained in your country against your will?

So, in 2003, Bush invaded Iraq; in 2011, Obama ended the war for America, and Iraq struggled on as an independent, sovereign nation, rather badly under Maliki. Then, in 2014, three years later, disaster struck.

Let's see. Eight years of the Bush war, three years of Obama trying to end it, and three years of Iraq on its own.

How, in any reasonable way, could anyone pin the blame on Obama for this course of events?

Hal Dendurent

Mount Vernon