Obama was under no obligation to insist that all US presence be removed. He did so in the name of politics knowing he could blame Bush for what has now happened and dupe those weak enough or biased enough to fall for it.
The Iraq war failings were a result of an unpredicted aftermath which was eventually quelled. In steps obama and there goes the whole thing. This is an obama fiasco. Period.
Bush agreed a withdrawal, Obama carried it out. The Iraqis wanted them out.
You claim, somehow, that this is then Obama's fault. I'm confused.
Unpredictable aftermath? Oh spare me the violins. A ten year old should be able to figure out what happens when you take a country, take away all the local police, all of the local army. The US didn't learn from Afghanistan, they could see what Iran would do.
In fact, it worked in Bush's favor to have al-Qaeda there. What's 4,000 US soldiers' lives when you can increase your support massively? I'm not saying this is what Bush was thinking, it's a possibility, but nothing about the post war period made any sense. He messed up SO BADLY, it shouldn't have happened, and don't give me that "unpredictable" carp, ISIS was unpredictable, because Assad was firmly in power until Spring 2011. Wasn't that unpredictable then?
There's a lot of double standard nonsense going on here.
Obama didn't want to remove the troops? Bush's agreement forced Obama against his will not to renegotiate the deal?
Surely you jest.
"But during the 2012 foreign policy presidential debate, Obama told the
American people that he didn't support leaving any troops in Iraq.
"Every time you've offered an opinion, you've been wrong," Obama told
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
"You said that we should still have troops in Iraq to this day."
Obama then denied that he ever supported a status of forces agreement
that would have left troops in Iraq:
MR. ROMNEY: [W]ith regards to Iraq, you and I agreed, I believe,
that there should have been a status of forces agreement. Did you —
PRESIDENT OBAMA: That's not true.
MR. ROMNEY: Oh, you didn't — you didn't want a status of forces agreement?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: No, but what I — what I would not have done is
left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down.
That certainly would not help us in the Middle East.
"Here's one thing I've learned as commander in chief," Obama said at
the end of the exchange. "You've got to be clear, both to our allies
and our enemies, about where you stand and what you mean.
Now, you just gave a speech a few weeks ago in which you said we should still
have troops in Iraq. That is not a recipe for making sure that we are
taking advantage of the opportunities and meeting the challenges of
the Middle East."
Obama s 2012 Debate Boast I Didn t Want to Leave Any Troops in Iraq The Weekly Standard