The Five co-host Dana Perino had a heated exchange with liberal panelist Bob Beckel Thursday on what she called his "revisionist history" on the Iraq War Thursday night.
Perino, who served as press secretary for President George W. Bush from 2007 until he left office in 2009, pushed back against Beckel's argument that further U.S. presence in Iraq after 2011 would have been fruitless. Iraq is now on the brink of collapse with an al Qaeda-linked group seizing control of the city of Mosul this week.
"Everybody forgets that on 9/11, one of the keys was to try to prevent a place where terrorists would have a safe haven to plot and plan," she said. "They're not going to stay within one border. They don't even think there is a border now. That's what this group declared today, that the border between Iraq and Syria no longer exists, going back to the Ottoman Empire. I think that we are foolish to think that we can just pretend like nothing's happening, shut down, just focus within here, because where they have a safe haven to plot and plan, you can't drone that out of a state like that."
This exchange followed:
BOB BECKEL: The first city that was turned over, the safe, most secure city to the Iraqi military was in 2008 in a big ceremony saying we've now got all these people trained, and it's the one safe place you can have. The fact of the matter is, back then, anybody who followed this would have predicted this was going to happen. Iraq is gone. It's going to fall apart.
DANA PERINO: That's not true. It was actually the generals who told President Obama, if you don't follow through, that's what will happen.
BECKEL: Follow through what?
PERINO: Follow through on the Status of Forces agreement which President Obama failed to sign. They said this is exactly what would happen. I would prefer to listen to the generals than to somebody who hasn't been in government in years, any day.
That one stung.
"Ok, there's a good shot," Beckel said.
"You take shots constantly, Bob," she replied. "You sit there and you act like everything from 1978 is still relevant today after 9/11."
[H/T IJ Review]