Bush in 2006: Withdrawal Would Turn Iraq into Terrorist State

During a speech in August of 2006, the Associated Press reports that then-President George W. Bush warned of what now sounds like a premonition of what would happen in Iraq should the U.S. prematurely withdraw our troops.

Bush said, “If we leave Iraq before the job is done, it will create a terrorist state in the heart of the Middle East, a terrorist state much more dangerous than Afghanistan was before we removed the Taliban, a terrorist state with the capacity to fund its activities because of the oil reserves of Iraq.”

What Bush warned of eight years ago is exactly what has happened. Although Iraq was — in his words — “a success,” President Obama still ensured that success would be liquidated by prematurely withdrawing American troops. The result has been, as Bush predicted, “a terrorists state in the heart of the Middle East… more dangerous than [pre-9/11] Afghanistan.”

The Islamic State in question has been formed by ISIS, a savage group of Islamists who are on a rampage to expand their territory and exterminate the oldest Christian sects on the planet. Tuesday ISIS released a video that shows one of their barbarians cutting the head off a man reported to be American journalist James Foley.

During a speech to the CENTCOM Coalition Conference the following year, in 2007, Bush again warned of the consequences of a premature Iraq withdrawal. Here he is apparently responding to intense pressure from both the media and Democrats to cut and run:

Withdrawal would have emboldened these radicals and extremists. It would have confirmed their belief that our nations were weak. It would help them gain new recruits, new resources. It would cause them to believe they could strike free nations at their choice.

Withdrawal would have increased the probability that coalition troops would be forced to return to Iraq one day, and confront an enemy that is even more dangerous. Failure in Iraq should be unacceptable to the civilized world. The risks are enormous.

Even though he’s been president for nearly six years, with the help of his lapdog media, Obama can run around blaming everyone else for the rise of ISIS. But there’s one thing Obama can’t do…

Say he wasn’t warned.

First Vietnam.

Now Iraq.

Democrats lose won wars.

That’s what they do.

Follow  John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC