Posted on 11/16/2015 7:54:32 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
A prophetic warning from then-President George W. Bush before he left office about what would happen if the U.S. withdrew troops from Iraq too soon is getting new attention in light of the Islamic State gains, as each of his predictions appears to be coming true.
Bush, as discussed on The Kelly File, made the remarks in the White House briefing room on July 12, 2007, as he argued against those who sought an immediate troop withdrawal.
To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States, Bush cautioned.
He then ticked off a string of predictions about what would happen if the U.S. left too early.
It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to Al Qaeda.
It would mean that we would be risking mass killings on a horrific scale.
It would mean we allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan.
It would mean we would be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.
Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen says all these predictions have come true.
Every single thing that President Bush said there in that statement is happening today, he told Fox News.
To Bush first warning, the Islamic State terror group is effectively the successor to Al Qaeda in Iraq and they have overrun several major cities in Iraq north while claiming broad swaths of territory in Syria. Further, the group has been behind mass killings of Iraqi civilians as well as the recent execution by beheading of two American journalists.
The Obama administration has warned that the group violence threatens to approach genocide levels.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
His brother predicted WMD in Iraq.
W. Loves America. Whatever you say about him, this separats him from the current administration and Obama in particular.
Sarah Palin also predicted Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Pretty much everyone who was not a Liberal predicted what would happen when you let a stupid dumbass play President because the idea of "historic first" gave media people orgasms.
Seriously people, did we have to play this stupid touchy feely game with the Presidency? Thousands are dead because the media decided to push this idiot on us, and we will be lucky if millions are not killed as a result of having this "community organizer" fool in a position of power.
???
PUH-LEEEZE :(
The withdrawal from Iraq was required from the W era.
If W hadn’t invaded Iraq, there would be no ISIS and the oldest Christian community in the region would not have been slaughtered.
Try again, Bushbots. At least you pretend to have a conscience. Some neocons just want perpetual war.
Well said !
He proves it every day by his devotion to the wounded vets. He sent them to war and now he spends time with them and cares for them.
God Bless President Bush...we miss you.
And his putz brother. Yeb!
And Cheney’s assessment of Bambi is spot on also.
Yep. George W. Bush was a patriot. Heck even old school democrats had at least a measure of patriotism back in the day. No longer. We have few patriots left in political office these days.
If Saddam was still in charge ISIS would not exist.
Those Democrat talking points are no more true with your post than they were when first uttered. Bush would not have completely withdrawn and left the place a sitting duck after so much effort had been made to stabilize the country. Bush also would never have allowed this to occur and just sat around on his hands watching ISIS freely roam across the desert, set up shop outside cities, and then take them over one after another. Air strikes would have been very effective before they became entrenched in the cities. Now, they are far less so. Your comments are absolute nonsense.
it’s strange how closely some FR threads resemble DU threads. And it’s the same people doing it most of the time.
it’s so consistent that it looks, um, planned.
The Media, in all its forms, (as well as Education)controls the vote and we are now living with the ramifications. Additionally, our demographics are changing.
Because if we had gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. It would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq. Once you got to Iraq and took it over and took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world. And if you take down the central government in Iraq, you could easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. Part of it the Syrians would like to have, the west. Part of eastern Iraq the Iranians would like to claim. Fought over for eight years. In the north, you've got the Kurds. And if the Kurds spin loose and join with Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey. It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq. The other thing is casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact that we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had, but for the 146 Americans killed in action and for the families it wasn't a cheap war. And the question for the president in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad and took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein was, how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? And our judgment was not very many, and I think we got it right.
Cheney, on not pushing on to Baghdad during the first Gulf War; C-SPAN 4-15-94
I was all for the Iraq invasion and still am. The Iranian revolution, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the 9/11 attacks, not to mention the brutal way Muslim countries treat their own citizens....was enough to convince nothing good would ever come from that cauldron of hatred. I could deal with it when I thought the hatred and poverty of humanity was contained in the middle east but, 9/11 said to me it was on its way to our shores and I felt it was time to get a foot hold in there and stop it before they got a foot hold over here and started it.
Still, out of respect to your point, I will concede your argument that invading Iraq was a bad idea. But, so what? It was done when Obama came into office. It could not be reversed.
So, now it’s time for you to concede that pulling every troop out of Iraq prematurely was an even worse mistake. Bottom line is: Bush’s leadership did not create ISIS. Obama’s leadership did. This is an absolute undeniable fact.
The problem for the liberal left is that they were in such a hurry to make Bush look bad, they didn’t even stop to consider the peril that all of western society would face.
Obama pulled us out. Iraq fell. ISIS took root and grew. So, how is this Bush’s fault?
Really my liberal friends and especially President Obama-You seriously let ISIS foment and grow and murder just to make a previous US President look bad? You are less mature than my 13 year old son. Your party doesn’t deserve leadership based on this snarky decision alone!!
And, now we’ll have hell to pay dealing with Obama’s brain-child ISIS and the irony is we will once again be back in Iraq...and this next time it will be worse than the last time.
The political left are idiots! Cry-bullies. Whiners. Namby-pambies. Political opportunist. And by the way, you don’t know how to balance a check-book either. I need a drink.
Withdrawing from Iraq was ordained from back in the W era. You can argue that Obama/Hillary SHOULD have renegotiated the terms. But, they didn’t. I doubt President Romney would’ve been able to either.
Next week, no one will remember this. I hope it won’t lead to another American quagmire.
Who needs ISIS when you have Uday and Qusay?
What’s your DU handle? You sound like a raving DUmmie.
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