The White House defended President Obama’s handling of the Middle East after former President George W. Bush slammed his successor’s record in a closed-door meeting with Jewish donors Saturday night.
“The fact that President Bush has a different perspective and philosophy is the principle reason that Obama is sitting in the White House right now,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Monday when asked about Bush’s comments.
Earnest said the White House is pleased with the progress Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has made in reaching out to Sunnis and other religious minorities in the country as a way of coalescing support to fight to the Islamic State, a Sunni self-described caliphate that controls a large area of Iraq and Syria.
“What we’re going to need is a strong central government to root out this extremist element that is threatening to divide the country,” he continued.
But Earnest carefully refrained from diving into an extended debate over Obama’s foreign policy record in the region.
Over the weekend, Bloomberg View reported that Bush, at a private dinner for the Republican Jewish Coalition, assailed Obama’s attempt to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran as naive and said he is also losing the war against the Islamic State.
Among several other criticisms, Bush, whose 2003 invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party dictatorship, told the group gathered for dinner at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas that his administration was particularly tough on terrorism, noting that terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed to killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was captured on his watch. “Just remember the guy who slit Danny Pearl’s throat is in Gitmo, and now they’re doing it on TV.”
