George Bush is right not to criticize his successor -- but he's very wrong about the facts of history

Ex-Veep Dick Cheney should listen to his former boss/puppet George W. Bush about not criticizing the sitting president.   But Bush is very wrong in his insinuations about whose fault the problems in Iraq are.

First, the debacle in Iraq today is a direct result of the Cheney/Bush decision to invade and try to remake the country into a democracy -- along with getting control of their oil.    The rise of ISIL and the current chaos is not the result of President Obama removing the troops;  it's the direct result of the invasion without a plan for what to do then, including the hasty, very bad decision to disband the Iraqi army and put all those military men out of work.    Some of the leaders of ISIL today were officers in that Iraqi army that became our enemies.

Second, it was not Obama who signed the agreement with the Iraqi's for when we would leave.   It was Bush, himself, back in 2008, who signed the agreement that all of our troops would be out by the end of 2011.    Obama later tried to renegotiate that, but the Iraqi's refused to extend the deadline.   They wanted us out and said no to our attempt to leave some troops there.

So, while it's good that the feckless Bush avoids public criticism of Obama's decisions --- his recent interview on Fox was totally disingenuous in its facts and implications.   For example, he said we should have left 10,000 to 15,000 troops in Iraq.   Then why did he not make that part of his 2008 agreement with the Iraqis, instead of "disagreeing" with the current president, whom he piously claims that he will not "second-guess" or criticize?

The sad truth is that I'm not even sure that Bush realizes his self-contradiction and hypocrisy.   Or that, while saying he won't criticize, he is in fact doing just that.  He seems to be limited in how much complexity his mind can deal with.  If it's not black and white, he has to trim the facts to make it black and white.

Which is part of his legacy that we're having to deal with now in the Middle East and elsewhere.   

Ralph