In last night’s speech on Afghanistan, President Trump said:

No one denies that we have inherited a challenging and troubling situation in Afghanistan and South Asia, but we do not have the luxury of going back in time and making different or better decisions. When I became President, I was given a bad and very complex hand, but I fully knew what I was getting into: big and intricate problems.

Every president inherits plenty of trouble, but Trump isn’t just whining here. On issue after issue, Barack Obama passed the buck, making the situation worse than he found it and leaving his successor to pick up the pieces. Health care, military preparedness, the national debt, Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea and Afghanistan are some of the instances that come to mind.

What is galling is that because he is a Democrat, Obama was never held accountable for his fecklessness (or worse). The press, and the establishment in general, allowed him to skate. This is a big topic, but let’s limit it to Afghanistan for the moment. Glenn Reynolds reminds us of Obama’s false claims and promises:

President Obama: "By 2014, the war in Afghanistan will be over." — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 5, 2012

FACT: Unlike President Obama, Romney has no plan to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home. — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 9, 2012

FACT: President Obama has a plan to end the war in Afghanistan in 2014—Mitt Romney does not. — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 22, 2012

President Obama: “We’re ending the war in Afghanistan because after a decade of war, it’s time to do some nation-building here at home.” — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 23, 2012

President Obama: "I told you we’d end the war in Iraq. We did. I said we’d end the war in Afghanistan. We are." #PromiseKept — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 24, 2012

President Obama: "By the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over." — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 13, 2013

Barack Obama’s administration was a horrific failure in just about every way, but he has had the press running interference for him for eight years and counting. His lies and broken promises about Afghanistan are a sobering reminder of what a poor job he did as president. So far, Donald Trump has been a vast improvement.