During an interview Sunday on ABC’s This Week, former vice president Dick Cheney censured President Obama for his Middle East foreign policy, arguing that his decision to continually withdraw U.S. military involvement from the region has emboldened jihadist terror groups to expand their membership and influence (via The Daily Beast). 

Cheney claims that the issue is much more profound than the recent ISIS intrusion into Iraq. As evidence, he cited a report by the Rand Corporation, which showed a 58 percent increase in Salafi jihadist groups like al-Qaeda from West Africa, through the Middle East and all the way to Indonesia. 

Political fact-checkers, curious about the validity of this statistic, reported that it was reliable. Its source, a nonpartisan think tank, chose to focus on Salafi-jihadist groups because they believe that violent jihad is necessary to their faith, view the U.S. as an enemy and are willing to kill civilians on a large scale. 

Big ups to Mr. Cheney for cracking the stereotype of conservative fear-mongering, and for reminding us that the American presence in the Middle East did have a significant impact on deterring the rise of terrorist groups. 

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