To the editor:

In their July 17 letter, Craig Tucker and Judy Northway blame George W. Bush for “fraudulently” invading Iraq.

Bill Clinton’s State Department on Jan. 8, 2001, issued a press release that began with these words: “The United States will continue to press Iraq to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction as a condition of lifting economic sanctions, even after the end of the Clinton administration January 20…”

A year after the invasion of Iraq, Hillary Clinton said the following when defending her vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq: “The consensus was the same, from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration. It was the same intelligence belief that our allies and friends around the world shared.”

If the intelligence regarding Iraq was fraudulent, the fraud preceded the Bush 43 administration.

Tucker and Northway also blame Bush for the economic downturn. In truth, blame can be spread over several administrations. A 2012 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), signed into law by Jimmy Carter, played a major role in the economic downturn because “adherence to the act led to riskier lending by banks.” Time magazine also blamed Bill Clinton because he loosened rules by rewriting the CRA, “which put added pressure on banks to lend in low-income neighborhoods.” Barack Obama also deserves a little blame because of his work with ACORN, which used the CRA to force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a pattern of high-risk loans.