The American public apparently blames former President George W. Bush for the crisis in Iraq by a wide margin of 2 to 1 over current President Barrack Obama. At the root of the issue must be that the public holds Bush to blame for going into Iraq in the first place. It is undeniable that the political situation in the fledgling democracy was stable at the time Bush finished his second term as president.
His famous troop surge under newly appointed theater commander General David Patraeus turned the war effort around in early 2007. However, the recent rise of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) continues to weigh against Bush’s legacy.
If supporters of President Obama were expecting this poll to offer the beleaguered president some respite from his sagging poll numbers, they will be disappointed. While the Quinnipiac poll shows Americans have soured on Bush’s invasion of Iraq, they give Obama poor marks for how he has handled the situation. His failure to secure a permanent base of operations and his hasty and publicly announced troop withdrawal dates gave ISIS a window of time in which to lie in wait while US troops withdraw at which time they launched their offensive.
In terms of how to deal with the crisis as it has evolved under Obama’s watch, the public does not share a clear consensus. Many disfavor sending troops back. A small plurality favor a targeted air campaign with those supporters wanting drone strikes to be used.