Yeah I see it completely differently. He campaigned on ending the Iraq War, which was a good thing. He ended the Iraq War at the beginning of his presidency, which was a good thing. He took credit for ending the Iraq war during most of his presidency, and that could have been a good thing.
But then something bad happened along the way…
His administration spent considerable resources, if not starting, then at least continuing another war in Syria. He armed, trained, and funded Syrian militants, most of whom are terrorists. He ignored the rise of Islamic State in the beginning because they were of potential use in overthrowing the Syrian regime. Then later when Islamic State became an international problem, he did not fight them aggressively, instead choosing a quarantine approach. It’s OK if they kill tens of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis…just don’t come kill anyone in Europe or the U.S., right?
Now, over time and towards the end of his presidency, the U.S. has become more embroiled in both Iraq and Syria, and Obama has faced criticism for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq too early. After campaigning on doing just that, and spending most of his presidency patting himself on the back for doing that, his supporters suddenly argue that he had no choice, it was all Bush’s idea.
It’s a terrible argument.
The fact is that the Obama administration was right to end the Iraq War, and wrong to essentially bring 6 years of civil war to Syria. This blame game we are discussing all comes back to his atrocious policy record on Syria, where if he had not gotten involved, there would be no Islamic State, no deterioration in Iraq, and no hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees fleeing the two countries.
Although I think Barack Obama has more integrity and character and better judgement than most men who get into his position, I think his presidency will ultimately be remembered for one thing and one thing only: Syria. It was another oligarchic proxy war that brought incredibly tragic death and destruction, once again to people in the Middle East.