#us-foreign-policy

Politico · by By POLITICO MAGAZINE · June 24, 2015

"For a brief, happy—and misguided—moment, most Americans stopped thinking about Iraq.

After withdrawing the last U.S. troops in 2011, President Barack Obama declared the country “sovereign, stable and self-reliant.”

No such luck.

Iraq plunged back into chaos as the Islamic State stormed the region last year, and the fall of Ramadi in May revived questions about how, and whether, the country can be salvaged.

As Americans try to understand what $2 trillion and nearly 4,500 American lives really accomplished, partisans are battling over how much blame falls on Obama, who left Iraq, and on President George W. Bush, who took us there.

“If you fought in Iraq, it worked,” 2016 presidential candidate Lindsey Graham recently said.

“It’s not your fault it’s going to hell.

It’s Obama’s fault.”

Naturally, Democrats see it differently: “This represents the failed policies that took us down this path 10 years ago,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has said.