Fox News host Megyn Kelly aired a warning issued by former President George W. Bush on Iraq Thursday night, calling it “frighteningly accurate.”
The clip was taken from a 2007 press conference and features Bush warn that if the U.S. withdrew too early from Iraq, troops would eventually have to return to face a stronger enemy.
“To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready … would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda,” Bush said. “It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan.”
“It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous,” he concluded.
Kelly aired the video ahead of a segment focusing on the growing threat from the Islamic State terror group