US lost its global leadership during Obama presidency: Cheney

The United States has lost its global leadership during President Barack Obama’s time in office, says former vice president Dick Cheney.

In an excerpt published on Saturday from their upcoming book, "Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America," Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, wrote that Obama has “dangerously surrendered” the US global leadership role.

The two slammed Obama for damaging the “indispensable nature of American power” and said the US must find ways to lead the world.

“For the most part, until the administration of Barack Obama, we delivered,” they wrote, arguing that Obama has “departed from this 75-year, largely bipartisan tradition of ensuring America’s pre-eminence and strength.”

The Cheneys accused Obama of abandoning Iraq and said he is on the way to do the same in Afghanistan.

Republicans blame the rise of the ISIL (Daesh) terrorist group on President Obama’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq in 2011, despite the fact that former president George W. Bush —Dick Cheney was his vice president — negotiated the pullout date with Baghdad as commander-in-chief of the US armed forces.

The Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control in Iraq and Syria.

They have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.

‘Iran deal will lead to use of nuclear weapon’

Elsewhere in their remarks, the Cheneys accused Obama of lying about the Iran nuclear agreement, calling on members of Congress to vote against the accord.

"Nearly everything the president has told us about his Iranian agreement is false. He has said it will prevent the Iranians from acquiring nuclear weapons, but it will actually facilitate and legitimize an Iranian nuclear arsenal," they wrote.

"The Obama agreement will lead to a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclear-arms race in the Middle East and, more than likely, the first use of a nuclear weapon since Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Right-wing elements in the Republican Party along with Israel and some of their allies accuse Iran of pursuing military objectives in its civilian nuclear program.

Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Iran and the P5+1 group of countries - the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany – announced the conclusion of nuclear negotiations in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on July 14.

The Obama administration is striving to save the nuclear agreement in the Republican-dominated Congress which is reviewing it and is expected to vote on it in September.

Republicans oppose the nuclear agreement with Iran, but they need a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress to override a presidential veto, and to reach that threshold, Republicans need Democratic support.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk