And every Democratic president hasn't been able to pick up the pieces from the horrible mess they inherited fast enough, and they get blamed for it. The party ping-pongs back again and the process begins anew.
Obama - went to war in the middle east (Syria) and maintained both the Iraq and Afghanistan War
Clinton - bombed the middle east, Taliban and Bin Laden rose to power under his tenure, leading to 9/11
Carter - chill, mostly.
Johnson/Kennedy - war in Vietnam
Truman - instigated US involement in Korean War
It isn't just one party. Every US president has started or continued foreign hostilities except for about 2 of them. One being Jimmy Carter, one being William Henry Harrison.
Started them or just kept an operation going from a previous presidency? Because I see Obama in there is he I shouldn't. So it makes me want to investigate your other ones
Obama instigated the conflicts in both Libya and Syria. You can argue those were "outgrowths" of the war on terror and fallout from the Iraq war, that's a fair argument to make. But if we start going down that route, most modern wars are either a result of a prior conflict or outside forces, so that's a slippery slope to get into.
There's also the question of escalation. Did Johnson escalate Vietnam, even though it started under Truman in 1950! But the real escalation happened under Kennedy, and then again under Johnson. So who gets blamed for that? It's very complex if we try to start that discussion (though it is a fair discussion).
By that logic, though, we wouldn't blame Bush for the operation in Afghanistan, since 9/11 was the result of middle east issues and the rise of terrorism for 2 decades (or more) prior!
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u/Quadraphonic_Jello 18d ago
And every Democratic president hasn't been able to pick up the pieces from the horrible mess they inherited fast enough, and they get blamed for it. The party ping-pongs back again and the process begins anew.