MSNBC Host Fails to Get Reporter to Blame Bush for the Current Situation in Iraq

Via Progressives Today:

MSNBC and other liberal mainstream media stations have worked to minimize President Obama’s role in the current crisis in Iraq, but honest reporters like the Daily Beast’s Eli Lake aren’t playing along.

That was evident on a recent episode of “The Reid Report” in which host Joy Reid attempted to place the blame for the Iraq crisis on neoconservatives who served under President Bush, only to have Lake set the record straight about Obama’s massive failures.

“Reid … began the segment trying to dismiss warnings from ‘neoconservatives’ that Iraq may soon become a breeding ground for future attacks on the continental United States,” the Daily Caller reports.

“’This time around, is this back to the future?’ Reid asked. ‘Or is there some realistic link between what’s happening in Iraq right now and possibility of terrorism on domestic soil, here in the U.S.?’”

Lake threw Reid’s obvious set-up question out the window, and instead rightly called out progressives for their attempt to shift the blame for the problems in Iraq.

“Well, I mean, the director of the FBI has been warning about attacks on the U.S.,” he said, “and so … have many leaders of the intelligence community. I think you’d be hard pressed to call them neoconservatives.

“Neoconservatives have been out of power in terms of the U.S. government really since Bush’s first term ended and then he cleaned house. In my view, I think that sort of focusing on what (former Defense official) Paul Wolfowitz may say on some of the Sunday shows is a way for progressives to avoid some of the hard questions about the policy of a Democratic president right now on Iraq. This is obviously very different than it was in 2003.”

Reid tried a second time to steer the conversation to 2003, and the disbanding of the Iraqi army, but Lake took the opportunity to provide a mini history lesson on exactly why Obama’s very much to blame for allowing ISIS terrorists to unravel the progress in Iraq.

From the Daily Caller: 

“’You should look at all of the history,’ Lake replied, ‘including the history before 2003. … I think the way Paul Bremer made a huge mistake disbanding the Iraqi military in the way that he did.

‘But I also think it was a huge mistake that the Obama administration never used any of his leverage with (Iraqi Prime Minister) Nouri al-Maliki to try to save Maliki from his own worst tendencies,’ Lake asserted, saying Obama’s decision to reward Maliki with F-16s and other ineffective support clearly backfired.

‘It’s a very easy thing to sort of say, ‘Oh, Iraq is a mess, remember the neocons,’ he accused. ‘So in that respect, I think that – you know, yeah, they’re in the commentary now. How really relevant is it? No one is proposing ANY kind of invasion. I think the whole country is against it.’”

In other words, the progressive line about Iraq – “remember the neocons” – is little more than a lame tactic to distract from Obama’s hand in creating the current situation. And it’s certainly refreshing to see that at least some honest reporters refuse to overlook that fact to spare the president from his due embarrassment.