What To Say To Bill Kristol & Co.

Basically this.

Points that have to be made better, however:

This is a conservative fantasy:

Sure Bush and Cheney screwed up Iraq, but then they made up for it with the wise and glorious surge. Iraq was then stable. But Obama screwed it up.

Totally false.

Iraq has never really been stable. It has fluctuated, mostly favoring instability, since the ill-fated invasion. What matters is the overall trend. You can't just pick a point and say "see? stable!". Or even "See! Unstable!"

And Bush did not "make up for" his stupendous error by ordering the surge. The surge was a not-clearly-very-smart hail Mary that gained some more temporary stability. We can do that, you see, by committing more men and resources. Which we can't keep doing.

The Bush/Cheney administration lead us off a cliff. Committing massive resources to effect a temporary reprieve does not get them off the hook for that.

Conservatives like Kristol need to be held accountable for their stupidity. Kristol gets beat up pretty good here, but all their little canned sophistries need to be answered every time.