President Barack Obama's action to pull all troops out of Iraq was "the worst decision so far of the 21st century," Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday, and led to the formation of the Islamic State (ISIS).
"ISIS is a complete product of his taking our troops out of there," the former New York City mayor told Fox News'
"America's Newsroom" program. "Nature abhors a vacuum: It's not a cliché; it's a reality."
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He pointed out that Obama has created other power vacuums in the world, which are bringing even more problems.
"He creates an extra vacuum in the South China Sea by aiming to reduce our Navy," said Giuliani. "He created a vacuum in the Middle East by not supporting the Syrian rebels ... He creates a vacuum in Iraq by pulling our troops out, leaving no one behind."
Obama is adding to the issues by not having a strategy for Iraq and ISIS, the former mayor continued.
Earlier this week, Obama said that "when a finalized plan is presented to me by the Pentagon, then I will share it with the American people. We don't yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well."
"The U.S. should be embarrassed by him coming out to say he didn't have a strategy in Iraq," said Giuliani. "What's he doing? Iraq has been an issue for his entire presidency. He doesn't have a strategy for Iraq? He's going to get one handed to him today?
"You want to know why ISIS and ISIL exists?" Giuliani asked, using both acronyms for the Islamic State. "He just told you why. Because he doesn't have a strategy for Iraq."
Obama's strategy, added Giuliani, "should have been to leave behind a substantial number of American soldiers who would have picked up ISIS, ISIL, at an early stage, and we would have been able to wipe them out at an early stage instead of letting the monster grow its head."
The president's lack of strategy would be "like a president during a Cold War saying I didn't have a policy. It would be John Kennedy saying 'I don't have a policy for the Soviet Union, give me three years,'" he said.
Also Wednesday morning, Giuliani said he agrees with comments made by former
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who called for deepening European ties to confront Russia.
"The reset of the relationship with the Soviet Union was one of the other worst decisions in the early part of this century," Giuliani said. "[We reset] the relationship with Russia without getting anything for it. We took away the nuclear defense of Poland and the Czech Republic. This is a total lack of knowledge of history by the president and Hillary Clinton."
The one thing that resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union was the Reagan-era "Star Wars" program, said Giuliani, complaining that Obama also will get "nothing for the [nuclear] agreement with Iran.
"We'll allow a homicidal maniac to have his hands on nuclear material," he said. "That's an absurd decision."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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