Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested Tuesday that the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 was not President Obama’s fault or decision, but rather Prime Minister Mouri al-Maliki’s.
“In retrospect, that was a mistake by the Iraqi government,” she said during a town hall discussion on CNN.
She said the United States and Iraq failed to reach consensus on a Status of Forces Agreement that would have kept a shell body of U.S. troops in the nation to help keep peace, post-2011, the Daily Mail reported.
Mr. Maliki didn’t sign on to the agreement because of a clause that would have granted immunity to U.S. troops who broke the law in his nation, the Daily Mail said.
Mrs. Clinton, who’s widely believed to be laying the groundwork for a White House run in 2016, left her post in the Obama administration in 2013.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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