This is what is called a trial balloon. Bill Kristol, the biggest cheerleader behind the Iraq invasion, Sarah Palin and a host of other disasters, claimed on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolus that George W Bush had left office with Iraq in good shape. Bill Kristol was debating with Congressman Keith Ellison.
Raw Story
As Kristol smiled and shook his head, Ellison explained, “I mean, we cannot forget that we are in the space we are in now because of that invasion that was based on falsehoods in every conceivable way, and the tremendous loss of money, treasure, and blood. And, of course, he [Jeb Bush] wants to escape that legacy.”
Ellison went to say, “I think we cannot escape how much damage the Iraq policy of George W. Bush did to his country and…” before Kristol cut him off.
“When George W. Bush left office, Iraq was safe and peaceful,” Kristol lectured Ellison. “Thanks to the surge..” at which point Ellison cut Kristol off, shaking his head and saying, “Nah, nah. There was always rumblings and dangers in that place.”
This, if it is allowed to stick is the beginning of the GOP campaign to rewrite history to portrait the situation in Iraq as fixed by 2008. The implication is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama "broke" Iraq.
Here is an earlier clip of Bill Kristol touting Iraq as a 2 month war
Rachel Maddow details a list of failed predictions by Bill Kristol.
Here is a slideshow from Mediate showing many of his failed predictions
Why do they still give this smug idiot air time?
Juan Cole lays out in 2008 the lies told by the Neocons about Iraq
1. Iraqis are safer because of Bush’s War. In fact, conditions of insecurity have helped created both an internal and external refugee problem:
At least 4.2 million Iraqis were displaced. These included 2.2 million who were displaced within Iraq and some 2 million refugees, mostly in Syria (around 1.4 million) and Jordan (around half a million). In the last months of the year both these neighbouring states, struggling to meet the health, education and other needs of the Iraqi refugees already present, introduced visa requirements that impeded the entry of Iraqis seeking refuge. Within Iraq, most governorates barred entry to Iraqis fleeing sectarian violence elsewhere.’
Edit: What Bill Kristol is trying to do is lay out a line of attack on Hillary Clinton. By rewriting history and making 2008 Iraq a rosy picture, he and his allies will attack Hillary saying she let Iraq get out of control. This is why we need to attack this lie.