Bill Clinton Bashes Cheney Over Iraq

Former president Bill Clinton. (photo: Brennan Linsley/AP)

By David Jackson, USA Today

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ormer President Bill Clinton is firing back at ex-Vice President Dick Cheney over criticism of the Obama administration's foreign policy (which once included Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton).

"You know, if they hadn't gone to war in Iraq none of this would be happening," Clinton said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on NBC's Meet The Press, referring to Cheney and the George W. Bush administration.

When NBC's David Gregory asked about ongoing violence in Syria as well as Iraq, Clinton replied: "Well, it might be happening in Syria, but what happened in Syria wouldn't have happened in Iraq. Iraq would not have been, in effect, drastically altered, as it has been."

The ex-president told Meet the Press that "Mr. Cheney has been incredibly adroit for the last six years or so attacking the administration for not doing an adequate job of cleaning up the mess that he made. And I think it's unseemly."

Clinton -- whose wife Hillary may seek the White House in 2016 -- had kinder words for former President George W. Bush.

"I give President Bush, by the way, a lot of credit for trying to stay out of this debate and letting other people work through it," Clinton said.