Earlier this week, Bloomberg View columnist Barry Ritholtz took Art Laffer to task for a piece of economic analysis the former Reagan adviser penned in 2009 that proved drastically wrong. Ritholtz used the column to ask : Why aren’t pundits held accountable?

It’s an important question, and one that warrants consideration, particularly as unrepentant architects of the Iraq War enter the public sphere to opine on the deteriorating situation in that country.

Following President Obama’s speech on the increasing violence in Iraq, Ari Fleischer weighed in on Twitter:

Regardless of what anyone thinks of going into Iraq in 2002, it’s a tragedy that the successes of the 2007 surge have been lost & abandoned.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) June 13, 2014

As critics were quick to point out, it’s impossible to have a credible discussion about the situation in Iraq without consideration of how we got there in the first place (also, we actually invaded Iraq in 2003). And it’s certainly convenient for Fleischer to wave away questions about the initial invasion given that he helped to sell it as President Bush’s press secretary.

Here are some quotes from the former Bush flak that Think […]