Karl Rove's Revisionist History On Iraq: Obama 'Squandered The Peace' That Bush Left Behind

By Heather — September 14, 2014

Karl Rove can lie to the viewers over at Faux "news" all he wants, but it's not going to change the fact that Iraq was far from peaceful after the so-called surge, as Steve Hynd explained back in 2009 when they were discussing the same strategy for Afghanistan:

The Surge in Iraq essentially became a plan to bribe militants with guns and barrowloads of cash to not attack US troops and that left the core corruption, graft and incompetencies of the Iraqi government untouched and thus left the seeds of future conflict while temporarily tamping down violence to a level which would still horrify anyone West of Beirut. The planned surge in Afghanistan is likely to do the same there. [...]

It's utterly unclear how 30,000 extra American soldiers in the South are intended to remedy this situation - and if corruption remains untouched then allied forces will have to remain there in perpetuity to ensure any level of cohesive governance at all. Thus the two greatest drivers of the Taliban's resurgent insurgency will remain intact and anything done in Helmland takes on the character of an extended game of whack-a-mole.

However, extending cycles of violence until the point where they dropped off the medias radar worked in Iraq and gave the US an excuse to head (mostly) for the exits. The same might be true in Afghanistan.[...]

Paper over the cracks for long enough if they can, declare victory and visibly leave, while repurposing a large part of any occupation forces as "trainers". Then, of course, any later collapse isn't officially our fault for invading in the first place...

Not in Fox-land, where Rove and his ilk are continually attempting to lay all of this at the feet of President Obama and Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State:

ROBERTS: The path to the White House goes straight through Iowa. That's precisely where presumptive Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is today. So is she gearing up for a 2016 run? Our panel is back with us.

When you look at Hillary Clinton, she has got vast foreign policy experience, probably more so than any potential Democratic candidate out there, but the Democrats are facing a lot of problems when it comes to the president's foreign policy.

HUME: It will be interesting to see what she says about the president's plan for dealing with ISIS. It will be interesting to see what continuing effect things going so badly in so many places after her being secretary of state for four years, has on her political standing, not just among Democrats where she remains wildly popular, especially in Iowa, where she's, what, 59 percent. Nobody else has 15 or more than 15. Those are things to watch.

I think it is, as most people do, highly likely that she'll run, but it's not guaranteed. And I think it's likely if she ran, she might win, but that's not guaranteed either. We all thought that back in 2007, that she was a shoe-in, and look what happened. So, you know, straight-line projections in politics are dangerous, and I think they're dangerous in her case.

ROBERTS: What's the effect on her, do you believe, Kirsten?

POWERS: We don't really know, because we don't know what's going to be happening in the world if and when she runs. So if things are stable, then it probably will look good to her. If things are not stable, then I think it won't look as good, because she's going to be held accountable for whatever President Obama leaves. And right now, look, if the election was held today, I think it would be a real problem for her.

ROBERTS: Karl?

ROVE: It has already been a problem. Take a look at her approval ratings. They have declined precipitously since she's left the secretary of state office. What was interesting, we've had a spat of polls this last week, in the Wall Street Journal poll, 47 percent of Americans say the world is a less safe place; only 26 percent say more. And 52 percent of women say it's a less safe place.

And Republicans in the Gallup poll have a 55-32 lead over the Democrats on which is the better party to confront terrorism. So she's already suffering. And my sense is look, who thinks the world will be a much safer, placid, peaceful place in two years? The president is suffering because of the policies of his administration, squandered the peace, and have led to the circumstances we find ourselves in today, and she was the secretary of state during the first four years of his time in office.