Potential presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Monday said that the Iraq War was not a mistake, but he seemed unsure of how he would have approached the war given what he knows now.
“If I knew then what I know now, a land invasion may not have been the right answer,” Graham said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”
He added that Saddam Hussein “had a lot to do with destabilizing the region.” Graham told CNN he would have “kept the pressure to get rid of Saddam.”
He then blamed the current situation in Iraq on President Obama.
“At the end of the day, I blame President Obama for the mess in Iraq and Syria, not President Bush,” Graham said.
Graham is one of a few potential 2016 candidates who defended the Iraq War, including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), in the wake of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R) struggle to answer questions about the invasion.
When asked last week whether he would have authorized the Iraq invasion given what he knows now, Bush initially said he would have gone into Iraq. But he quickly backtracked and claimed he misheard the question. Eventually, he said that “would not have gone into Iraq” if he’d had the information available today.
Bush’s stumble prompted numerous presidential candidates and Iraq War architects to weigh in on the invasion again.
