Boxer: Iraq crisis grew from neo-con policy

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Sunday placed blame for the current crisis in Iraq on supporters of the Iraq war.

“The fact is what you’re seeing now is an outgrowth of that bad policy the neo-cons got us in, that crowd on false pretense that said, ‘Go in there,’ ” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“I agree with the president. We’re not going to go back into that war again, ever,” said the California Democrat, one of the most vocal opponents of the war in Iraq.

“I didn’t vote … for that war, it was one of my proudest moments, only 23 of us in the United States Senate, because they were both on false pretense,” she added. “And we unleashed a horror that we’re seeing today. But the bottom line is, we do have a counter terrorism mission, and I support that mission.”

Boxer said she supported President Obama’s decision to send 300 military advisers to Iraq to help the government stem the gains of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which has captured four towns in the past two days.

“So as far as I’m concerned, the advisors there, as far as I know, are there to really given an assessment of what’s happening on the ground. That’s very important for us. And also, they have a counter-terrorism mission, which I voted for after 9/11. We need to go after the terrorists who are a threat to us.”

Boxer also called former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticism of President Obama’s foreign policy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week “sick”.

“It was Vice President Cheney and Condi Rice working for George W. Bush and Rumsfeld and all those folks. It’s just like, you know, a nightmare come back to haunt me, just frankly, who are basically telling us, ‘Get right back in there again.’ “

“The Iraqis had their chance. They blew it, and I think right now, they’ve got to figure out if they can form an inclusive government,” she added.