In an interview with Vice, the HBO news program, President Obama said that the formation of ISIS was an unintended consequence of our invasion of Iraq in 2003. Naturally, Bill O'Reilly became unhinged over this fact, claiming the opposite is true. Bill-O believes it was President Obama's fault for adhering to the Status of Forces Agreement which Bush 43 signed prior to our president's first inauguration.
Talking Points Memo writes:
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said on Tuesday night that the Iraq War was a "victory" until President Obama removed combat troops from the country.
"ISIL is a direct outgrowth of al Qaeda in Iraq, that grew out of our invasion, which is an example of unintended consequences," Obama said. "We’ve got a 60-country coalition. We will slowly push back ISIL out of Iraq. I’m confident that will happen."
"Slowly is the key word there," O'Reilly said after playing a clip of Obama's interview with Vice. "As thousands of people are being slaughtered, the USA and other Western powers are acting slowly."
He believes that the surge in 2007 was an undeniable success. O'Reilly continued:
"When it ended, Iraq was a fairly stable situation," O'Reilly said. "Subsequently the Iraqi government totally blew it, persecuting the Sunni minority, leading to chaos and corruption."
Funny how O'Reilly forgets to mention that initially, George W. Bush didn't know the difference between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. Without this knowledge or consideration in the planning of that disastrous and illegal war, the Bush Administration could not have foreseen the unintended consequences of their invasion exacerbating the bloodshed between the two sects of Islam and destabilizing the region.
Bill concluded,
"While the Iraq War did indeed cost far too much blood and treasure for America, it was a victory until President Obama mucked it up, if 10,000 U.S. forces had remained in Iraq, ISIS could not have achieved a foothold there, and Iran would not be running the show today."
While one pundit is accusing President Obama of not understanding or caring about history on Fox News, we have this blowhard rewriting history so George W. Bush doesn't look as bad as he so richly deserves to look.
