Former John McCain presidential campaign advisor Steve Schmidt pushed back against former Carter staffer Chris Matthews on tonight's Hardball when the latter whipped out his tired Bush-caused-ISIS talking point.
Schmidt wondered why set the clock for the genesis of ISIS in the Bush era when Jimmy Carter's mishandling of Iran in 1979 and the Eisenhower administration's sponsorship of a coup d'etat in Iran in 1953 were arguably also part of a long history of mishandling by Western powers of the complicated politics of the Middle East.
Here's the relevant transcript and video:
MSNBC
Hardball
December 15, 2015; 7:36 p.m. EasternCHRIS MATTHEWS: The same argument could go back and say, the reason we have an Islamic state, that we have an ISIS, is because George W. Bush, with his absolutely lack of any geopolitical intelligence broke up the state of Iraq, created the army, which is now the army of ISIS.
STEVE SCHMIDT: And it could be, Chris, it could be, Chris, that we could go back to 1979 and the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini or to 1953 with the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran.
MATTHEWS:I was just making that point, Steve. I was making a point and you're doing it.
SCHMIDT: We could go back to 1917 [and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire]. Or we could go back to 1917.
MATTHEWS: But you started it. But, Steve, you started it right there. OK. Steve, you're making the point that you shouldn't have been doing what you were doing. Go ahead.
SCHMIDT: The point, Chris, is the history of the Middle East is one of violence and chaos. And our leaders in both parties have consistently not understood the culture, not understood the religion, not understood the geopolitics of the region. Hillary Clinton chief among them.
MATTHEWS: OK, the number one balloonhead decision was to go in and break up Iraq. Anyway, thank you.
SCHMIDT: Which was pacified by 2009. In 2009 –
MATTHEWS: And everybody in the Republican Party agrees with that now. Agrees –
SCHMIDT: – when Barack Obama took office –
MATTHEWS: OK, OK, let's go.
SCHMIDT: – at great sacrifice and great cost. Iraq was pacified.
MATTHEWS: OK, OK, put that on the Republican platform next summer.
