Those who criticize President Obama for failures in Middle East policy are quick to cite the failure to leave a large “garrison force” of troops in Iraq, or to arm Syrian moderates against the Assad regime.

Fine, but the original sin was invading on the false premises of “weapons of mass destruction” and Saddam Hussein’s alleged links to international terrorists. And al-Qaida in Iraq — which spawned the even more radical ISIS in Syria — owed its very existence to the chaos that ensued after the U.S. invaded.

As a Vietnam veteran and Business Week’s national security correspondent during the Reagan years, I covered Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who used the lessons of Southeast Asia to frame his national security policy. He would never have advised President Reagan to export democracy at the point of a gun on such a massive scale. That’s where Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld owe this nation an apology.

I side with Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni (ret.), former chief of the Central Command, who said in 2004 that the Bush administration “screwed up” by invading Iraq. He was right, and the Middle East has never been the same.

Dave Griffiths, Mechanic Falls

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