Sen. Bernard Sanders on Sunday pointed the finger at former President George W. Bush for invading Iraq and creating the “can of worms” that is the Islamic State group.

“It is very easy to criticize the president,” Mr. Sanders, Vermont Independent, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“But this is an enormously complicated issue. We are here today because of the disastrous blunder of the Bush-Cheney era, which got us into this war in Iraq in the first place, which then developed the can of worms that we’re trying to deal with right now.”

Mr. Sanders expressed his concern about the possibility of getting dragged into “perpetual warfare.”

“We have been at war for 12 years; we have spent trillions of dollars. I’m chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. We have 500,000 men and women who have come home with PTSD and TBI [traumatic brain injuries]. What I do not want, and what I fear very much, is the United States getting sucked into a quagmire and being involved in perpetual warfare year after year after year. That is my fear,” he said.

The senator also argued that the war against Islamic State militants must be an international effort.

“This is a regional crisis, and I think the people of America are getting sick and tired of the world and the region — Saudi Arabia and the other countries — saying, ‘Hey, we don’t have to do anything about it.’

“This is a war for the soul of Islam, and the Muslim nations must be deeply involved,” Mr. Sanders said. “And to the degree the developed countries are involved, it should be the U.K., France, Germany, other countries as well.”

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