Ambassador Bolton: al Qaeda Back in Iraq ‘Represents the Final Crash of American Policy’

BOLTON: “Well I think it's much bigger than that, but I think the situation in Anbar represents the final crash of American policy over not just the five years of the Obama Administration, but sadly the last couple years of the Bush Administration. The withdrawal of American forces lost us all the leverage we had to try and keep Iraq together as a country, and it has it has descended once more into civil war between Sunni's and Shiite's and we see the rise of al Qaeda to help Sunni's out against what they see as the oppression of the Al-Malaki regime directed by the Ayatollahs in Tehran.”
CAMEROTA: “Colonel North, I want you to build on what Ambassador Bolton said. We have spent more than a trillion in Iraq. We have lost 4,410 U.S. soldiers and Marines. It must make you sick to hear how it's deteriorating.”
NORTH: “Well yes, having spent all of those months over there with those soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen, Marines doing what they could, most of it in Anbar ever since we crossed the border back in 2003. Most of my time was spent over in Anbar province. I watched the development of the rise of, if you will, the pro-Western coalition of the Sunni shakes. I watched what was called the awakening. All of that was successful because of what John just said and Ambassador Bolton just said, because of the American presence and because of the American involvement in that, there was no choice, they had to get along. I am not saying that we ought to have American troops in thousands of numbers. But the withdrawal that occurred in December 2011 brought this about."