Calling criticism of his son “grossly unfair,” President George H. W. Bush attacked critics of President Bush’s Iraq policy.

“Do they want to bring back Saddam Hussein, these critics?” the elder Bush told USA TODAY in a rare interview. “Do they want to go back to the status quo ante? I don’t know what they are talking about here. Do they think life would be better in the Middle East if Saddam were still there?”

In reality, critics of Bush’s policies are “talking about” the repeated, foreseeable and avoidable failures of his Iraq war policies. The war has undermined American security, underfunded national priorities, and increased the threat of terrorism. Rather than “go back to the status quo ante,” progressives have called for a new direction in Iraq and proposed numerous strategies to bring our troops home and stabilize the region. Unfortunately, the former President Bush would rather lash out at straw men than engage the actual criticisms of “these critics.”

UPDATE: ThinkProgress points out that “Bush Sr. has offered the most cogent explanations for why regime change was a poor strategic decision.”

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