If you didn’t see it, here is the link to the entire transcript of the hour-long interview.
Bush Interview, President Spoke to 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley At Camp David
Instability in Iraq threatens the entire region?
BUSH: If the government falls apart and there is sectarian enclaves and violence, it’ll invite Iran into the Shia neighborhoods, Sunni extremists into the Sunni neighborhoods, Kurdish separatist movements. All of which would threaten moderate people, moderate governments, and all of which will end up creating conditions that could lead to attacks here in America.
PELLEY: But wasn’t it your administration that created the instability in Iraq?
BUSH: Well, our administration took care of a source of instability in Iraq. Envision a world in which Saddam Hussein was rushing for a nuclear weapon to compete against Iran. My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the correct decision in my judgment. We didn’t find the weapons we thought we would find or the weapons everybody thought he had. But he was a significant source of instability.
PELLEY: It’s much more unstable now, Mr. President.
BUSH: Well, no question decisions have made things unstable. But the question is can we succeed. And I believe we can.
**shakes head**
This Pelley guy seems eager to put words in the President’s mouth. Why not just throw in,”But you were AWOL in the National Guard Mr. President, and we have memos to prove it.”
What more do we really need to hear from this mother****er.
Dee dee dee
I’m from Texas and this is embarrassing.
FWIW, Mr. Bush, not everybody believed Powell’s purported evidence of WMD programs.
(Hey Colin, feeling kind of stupid? Your ex-boss doesn’t).
#2, Mike
Pelley didn’t put any words in the Presidents mouth. The President is quite capable of looking like a dolt all on his own. I saw the interview (right after NE did it to SD) and wasn’t surprised at anything. I thought the President might have been a little more humble about screwing up the whole Middle East though.
The one thing I didn’t know was just how much time Bush spent at Camp David, totaling a whole year in a six year Presidency. Add to that the amount of time Bush spends at his pseudo ranch in Texas and we have someone occupying the Presidency who doesn’t want to be there.
#5,
I feel for you. I feel just as embarrassed when he travels abroad and opens his mouth.
Just amazing that there is no WE in any of these statements. Only “I”.
Don’t be too mean to Texas people though. We will be the first target of a nuclear strike due to Bush, I’m pretty sure.
I guess we’ll take one for the team…even though it’s not the game we originally asked to play.
Oliver North :
“21000 more troops, 21000 more targets”
I thought he sounded pretty rational and as humble as a politician at that level can be. His point about people complaining but providing no solution was dead on. IMO, the Democrats have become a party of complainers. At times they do have legitimate complaints but they never seem to come off as a party that offers solutions.
#11
First, the Dems had little choice but to complain. They have been out of power for years. But, even the Republican congress has had little to do or say over the last four years. When the administration listens to no one, every suggestion looks like a complaint.
I would love to the Dems put fourth some possible solutions now that they have more power, but I fear that the problems in Iraq will get worse, no matter what we do, and the administration will, in any case, fall back on its typical modus operandi: Claim that it wants bi-partisan input, while ignoring any suggestions that does not conform to their narrow world view.
#11
First, the Democrats have had little choice but to complain. They have been out of power for years. Even the Republican congress has had little to do or say over the last four years. When the administration listens to no one, every suggestion looks like a complaint.
I would love to the Democrats put fourth some possible solutions now that they have more power, but I fear that the problems in Iraq will get worse, no matter what we do, and the administration will, in any case, fall back on its typical modus operandi: Claim that it wants bi-partisan input, while ignoring any suggestions that does not conform to their narrow world view.
#11 – What you fail to realize, apparently, is that there are conditions for submitting solutions when talking about IRAQ to the President.
He is only accepting ideas “that will assure Victory” in Iraq, even though his current and ongoing plan has no such assurance.
Thats not stopping him from saying the same line he and his administration have been saying for 4 years now.
He is also not saying that his plan, as is, will fail in any way. Sec. Rice even confirmed that there is no other strategy, as admitting to such would allow for a modicum of failure.
Those, to me, are interesting talking points. Guarantee that we will win, and I will listen. Tell me there is a chance of ‘failure’ (disregarding anything over the last 4 years – because the President stated himself that it has failed) and he doesn’t listen.
Sounds like the ultimate Catch 22.
Of course, I have to admit my failing as a Human….because I don’t nor have I ever talked to or spoken with, or been told, as has Our President, that it was “Gods Will” apparently straight from the source.
No one brings that little tidbit up anymore though…..strange….because I have to say…if I spoke directly to the Supreme Creator of all the universe….well, I would bring it up every chance I got.
11, come on. Bush isn’t going to listen to anybody but maybe a couple of his closest advisors, guys like Rove. The “give us your better idea” is an obvious political ruse. There have been hundreds of ideas coming out of congress the last four years, even his own bipartisan panel has a few, and he’s ignored all of them.
None of us can say what it takes to settle things down in Iraq, and very, very few politicians have the military or deplomatic backgrounds to come up with workable solutions. Let’s just hope that Gates is competent where Rumsfeld was not.
Regarding Bush and credibility, I listened to Stephen Hadley (national security advisor) yesterday on Meet the Press, and he admitted Bush lied about the state of the war in order to help the Rs in the elections. We clearly remember Bush campaigning all over the place that we ARE winning in Iraq, yet Hadley said it became clear to the administration that we were not winning….back in the spring of 2006. People who do that are generally considered to be liars….
To be completely fair… If I had so completely and totally screwed up the Middle East in as grand a fashion as Bush, I doubt I could muster the courage to take responsibility for it, prefering instead to retreat into a cloistered and protected fantasy world where I am the wise and strong leader and no one else can understand the brilliance of my statergery*
*that spelling was deliberate
Hmmm,
Iv said what would happen for years…
It has, it will, and there is nothing that can be done.
Iraq will be torn apart by all the Different Muslim groups…
So, what, things mellow out for a time, they will WAIT…until we leave..and then slowly invade.
I can only agree with the question put forward by ‘Meet The Press’ Tim Russert yesterday in talking to Steven Hadley (NSA):
you were wrong about weapons of mass destruction,
you were wrong about the troop levels necessary,
you were wrong about the costs of the war,
you were wrong about oil revenues paying for reconstruction,
you were wrong about being greeted as liberators,
you were wrong about the level of sectarian violence,
why should the American people trust you now and think you’re right about a surge?
#5
I’m from ohio and it’s embarrassing we were the “decider state” during reelections.
I suggest that we have our troops withdraw to the border of Iraq and have them campout there for a few months. Set up a no-fly zone and no border crossing and see what happens.
If anyone is religious, it might not be a bad time to pray for the Country.
/agree with #1 – *also shakes head in disgust*
“Envision a world in which Saddam Hussein was rushing for a nuclear weapon to compete against Iran.”
So he does know, after all, that Saddam was indeed a balance against Iran. Instead of admitting that possibly having toppled Saddam was the reason why Iran is acting so bully, he twists it around and says Iran was the reason he did it!!! How insulting and delusional can this guy be?
#23. Indeed. Saddam was a great instrument for containing Iran which, with genuine WMD programs, an intact economy and powerful military (compare to the illusory WMD programs and sanctions-crippled economy and military of Iraq in 2003), a real threat.
But with Saddam gone and an Iranian-friendly Shiite government in Baghdad, Iranian influence spreads.
I love how the only definitive mistakes he admits to was doing the “bring it on” thing. Insufficient troops to secure the country “could” have been a mistake.
cripes
And how he thinks the real problem with US public opinion is that we think the Iraqis are ungrateful … not that the justifications for the war fell apart or we were fed unrealistic predictions about it being quick, cheap and easy, or anything substantive at all, but just that the Iraqis are ungrateful.
not one ounce of recognition that his PR campaign to get us into the war might now be responsible for public support disappearing.
this guy is still in cloudcookooland. I hope we live to see 2009
I’m not sure what we as a nation did to deserve this President and this administration, but clearly, we are stuck with a very poor situation for the next several years. It’s a salvage operation now. However, the more we can work together, the better it will go. I think we can all agree there is a lack of competence and honesty in the executive branch right now. There should be more interest in finding solutions than flogging the President. History will take care of that for us.
25. I like flogging the president, thank you very much.
The Real Mark
#19 I’m from ohio and it’s embarrassing we were the “decider state” during reelections.
Comment by Todd — 1/15/2007 @ 12:01 pm
How do you think I feel?
I moved from Ohio to Indiana and kept my Ohio registration so I could vote in a swing state. But did that help? I might as well have wasted my vote in Indiana.
Good news… Even Indiana swung a bit to the blue in the last elections.
I will always remember the fantastic presentation Colin Powell made at the UN regarding the WMDs back in 03 – clearly no other nation besides the UK(or Blair) believed in it – That was the tipping point IMO for our loss of credibility around the world.
How many years (decades) is it gonna take to be trusted again?
“There should be more interest in finding solutions than flogging the President. History will take care of that for us.”
Flogging, Last night he said in so many words that he didn’t give a flying fuck what anyone thought of him or his decisions.
Forget it. If you haven’t gotten it by now, you never will!
#25 “I’m not sure what we as a nation did to deserve this President ”
Someone voted for him.