That is what Erick Erickson has attempted to accomplish in his column that appeared in the Times Picayune of May 31 in the "Reflection" section titled, " ISIL Sprang Up On Obama's Watch." Erickson, the right wing conservative columnist is up set because republican Presidential candidates who are running for their party's nomination has had a difficult time answering questions about their support of the war and occupation of Iraq over WMD that did not exist and Bush's failure to take responsibility for the failure of that war.
Erick is also upset because President Obama ended the war as he said he would do when he campaigned for President. The right winger complained that Obama should have left American troops in Iraq and if he would have done that there would be no ISIL. Erickson rewrite of the facts exposes his true character. The reason no American troops were left in Iraq is because Iraq would not guarantee America and its troops immunity from Iraqi laws. Bush could not get Iraq's government to do so before he left office so the matter fell to President Obama when he took office. Obama ended our troop deployment when Iraq's governing body failed to vote on the matter.
The U.S. withdrawal from Iraq did not change the fact that Iraq's prime minister al-Maliki was running the Iraqi government as he had been for over a year. He was backed by the Bush administration to be the prime minister against other candidates. The so called Bush surge in Iraq was supposed to give al-Maliki the time necessary to unite Iraq's various factions but instead he made things worse for the Sunni's and failed to have a united government.
ISIL was created on al-Maliki's watch at a time American had no presence in Iraq and was created as a sister organization of Al Queda in Iraq and it happened because Iraq was a destabilized country made possible by the war and occupation over WMD that did not exist and the removal of Saddam from power
who kept Al Queda and other terror groups out of Iraq.
What really chaps Erickson and other conservative journalists is for years they have tried to plant the republican seed that democrats are soft on terror and the country's defense and that republicans are best at protecting America and its people. The facts tell a different story. The worst foreign terror attack on U.S. soil happened on 9/11/01 and it happened on the watch of President George W. Bush and it happened while he tried to talk and act tough.
The worst foreign terror attack against America on foreign soil happened on the watch of President Ronald Reagan when terrorists blew up the Marine compound in Lebanon killing 241 U.S. Marines. Reagan was also talking tough at the time and told the terrorists they could run but could not hide. But the fact is that the terrorists who were responsible for planning the cowardly act were never brought to justice by the Reagan administration.
What chaps Erickson and conservatives even more is the fact that President Obama has kept America safe from terror attacks since he has been in office and has brought Bin Laden and other terror leaders to justice. His administration has done so because of policy and priority and not a show off attitude of the so called republican chicken hawks.
Erickson can not rewrite the history of the Bush failure in the unnecessary war in Iraq over WMD that did not exist. As a reminder to Erickson, General Colin Powell, Bush's Secretary of State during Bush's first term in office told Bush during the run up to war in Iraq, "if you break it, you own it." Well President Bush broke Iraq and he still owns it. And worse, he left town without fixing it.
And that really says it all.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
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