Dick Cheney's new book: a '324-page broadside' that blasts Obama

If former vice president Dick Cheney was willing to criticize his own colleagues in the Bush administration in his last book, "In My Time," you can safely assume he won't hesitate to excoriate President Obama in his newest book.

"Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America," by Dick and Liz Cheney, hits shelves Tuesday. It's being called a "324-page broadside" that blasts Obama for weakening America's position in the world.

“The damage that Barack Obama has done to our ability to defend ourselves is appalling. It is without historical precedent. He has set us on a path of decline so steep that reversing direction will not be easy.”

The book begins with the rearmament of America in 1939 under FDR and George Marshall. For the next 70 years, the Cheneys claim, America asserted its strength and was the most powerful nation on earth, to the good of all. Until Obama came into office, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, endangering and diminishing America's role in the world.

“For the most part, until the administration of Barack Obama, we delivered,” they wrote, arguing that Obama, who Cheney once called "the worst president history has seen," has “departed from this 75-year, largely bipartisan tradition of ensuring America’s pre-eminence and strength.”

As evidence, the Cheneys cite the Iran deal, which they liken to the infamous Munich agreement in 1938 that sought to appease Adolf Hitler.

"Nearly everything the president has told us about his Iranian agreement is false. He has said it will prevent the Iranians from acquiring nuclear weapons, but it will actually facilitate and legitimize an Iranian nuclear arsenal," they wrote. "The Obama agreement will lead to a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclear-arms race in the Middle East and, more than likely, the first use of a nuclear weapon since Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

The father-daughter pair also revisit the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which Cheney championed then – and now.

In an interview with USA Today, he dismissed any claims that the invasion of Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein paved the way for turmoil in the region and the rise of the Islamic State.

"I don't believe it," he told USA Today. "We had Iraq in good shape until he [Obama] withdrew all the forces and refused to leave a stay-behind force that would have been able to support the Iraqis."

And he weighs in on Mrs. Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state, calling it a "deadly serious" security breach.

After a sobering tour of the devastation reportedly wrought by Obama and Clinton, Cheney offers a ray of hope in the form of the 2016 election.

American global leadership "can be ours again," write the Cheneys, if voters choose the next president "wisely."

Readers can see an excerpt of the book in The Wall Street Journal.