Sensing a chance to deflect criticism from Republicans for the U.S. involvement in Iraq and shift to President Barack Obama the blame for the rise of the terrorist group the Islamic State, GOP candidates with their eyes on the 2016 White House race strongly are backing the campaign issue of demanding the defeat of ISIS.
At Iowa's Lincoln Dinner last weekend, Republican contenders outdid each other in calling for the U.S. to smash ISIS, and laying the blame for its growth squarely at the feet of Obama and his one-time secretary of state, Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton.
"If you fought in Iraq, it worked. It’s not your fault it’s going to hell. It’s Obama’s fault," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the crowd,
The Washington Post reports.
"The person I blame is Barack Obama, not George W. Bush," Graham said,
PBS reported.
"He (Bush) made the best decision he could."
Even the administration's announcement that U.S. troops had killed Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian
top ISIS leader, failed to calm the GOP criticism of Obama.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush commented, "It’s a great day, but it’s not a strategy," the Post noted.
Tiring of fending off Democratic charges that George W. Bush is responsible for the current turmoil in Iraq, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said, "This deterioration of our physical and ideological strength has led to a world far more dangerous than when President Obama entered office. We’ve seen (ISIS) sweep across multiple states, commit brutal atrocities and attempt to establish a caliphate," the Post reported.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum said, "They want to bring back a seventh-century version of jihad. So here’s my suggestion. We load up our bombers, and we bomb them back to the seventh century,"
the Daily Kos reported.
Bush blasted Obama's withdrawal of 10,000 troops from Iraq, calling it a "decision made based on a campaign promise," and said, "ISIS didn't exist when my brother was president. Al-Qaida in Iraq was wiped out when my brother was president,"
the Post reported.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wrote on his Facebook page, "President Obama and Secretary Clinton hastily withdrew our troops, threw away the gains of the surge, and embarked on a broader policy of pivoting away from the Middle East and leading from behind that has created chaos in the region."
GOP consultant Ron Bonjean told the Post, "They’ve pushed the pendulum of blame in Obama’s direction. The Republican candidates don’t have to do a whole lot because Americans are scratching their heads about what’s going on in Iraq, but by speaking together, they’ve raised the volume."
The Post commented, "Reframing the way voters think about the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS, has thus become a critical endeavor for the GOP field, especially as former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is linked closely to Obama’s Iraq policies, emerges as the likely Democratic nominee."
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