Iraq war an 'external event?'

How's that again? The NY Times, speculating about whether President Bush will hire a new senior advisor, reports:

By most accounts inside and outside the administration, Mr. Rove is relentlessly cheerful, presenting himself as an optimistic face in a gloomy White House. One person who met Mr. Rove said he attributed Mr. Bush's problems more to external events, in particular Hurricane Katrina and Iraq, than to anything the White House did wrong.

So the war in Iraq is an outside event, like a hurricane, that just happened, rather than something Bush & Co. did wrong? Is it what the insurance companies call an act of God?

Incredible. In every sense of the word.