Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has taken a bipartisan approach to the escalating violence in Iraq, questioning the decisions of the George W. Bush administration that led troops to the second Iraq war.

According to Paul, he does not blame President Barack Obama for the increasing insurgency in Iraq led by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The Sunni terror group has seized Iraqi towns and cities, including the country's second largest city, Mosul.

But Paul has criticized people who have blamed Obama for the violence. Paul said those who criticized the president should ask themselves the same questions regarding the 2003 Iraqi invasion.

The Republican Kentucky senator said, "Were they right in their predictions? Were there weapons of mass destruction there? Was the war won in 2005, when many of those people said it was won?

"They didn't really, I think, understand the civil war that would break out."

One of the critics Paul was referring to was former Vice President Dick Cheney, who criticized Obama in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on June 17.

"Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many," Cheney wrote with his daughter Liz. "Too many times to count, Mr. Obama has told us he is 'ending' the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — as though wishing made it so. His rhetoric has now come crashing into reality. Watching the black-clad ISIS jihadists take territory once secured by American blood is final proof, if any were needed, that America's enemies are not 'decimated.' They are emboldened and on the march."

Cheney insinuated Obama doesn't care about Iraq, following his view that the 2007 surge in the country was a success. He added that Obama would rather discuss climate change or golf than manage Iraq.

During an interview with ABC News, Cheney maintained his stance on Obama's handling on Iraq.

"Everybody knows what my position is," Cheney said. "There's nothing to be argued about there. ... But if we spend our time debating what happened 11 or 12 years ago, we're going to miss the threat that is growing and that we do face."

Cheney called Paul an "isolationist" for his comments.

"[Paul] doesn't believe we ought to be involved in that part of the world. That didn't work in the 1930s, it sure as heck won't work in the aftermath of 9/11, when 19 guys armed with airline tickets and box cutters came all the way from Afghanistan and killed 3,000 of our citizens," Cheney said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., while appearing on CBS "Face the Nation," said the ISIS problems are the result of bad policy set by neoconservatives.

"It was Vice President Cheney and Condi Rice working for George W. Bush and Rumsfeld and all those folks -— that's just like, you know, a nightmare come back to haunt me, just frankly — who are basically telling us, get right back in there again. The American people don't want it. The president doesn't want us in," Boxer said.

According to a CBS poll, 54 percent of Americans believe the U.S. should not have entered Iraq, but 38 percent stated military action was needed. Ten years earlier, 69 percent of the U.S. public supported the Iraqi invasion.