ABC News– Looking back on his eight years in the White House, President George W. Bush said he was “unprepared” for war and pinpointed incorrect intelligence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as “biggest regret of all the presidency.” “I think I was unprepared for war,” Bush told ABC News’ Charlie Gibson in an interview airing today on “World News.” “In other words, I didn’t campaign and say, ‘Please vote for me, I’ll be able to handle an attack,'” he said. “In other words, I didn’t anticipate war. Presidents — one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.”
Bush, who has been a stalwart defender of the war in Iraq and maintaining U.S. troop presence there, said, in retrospect, the war exceeded his expectations. “A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein,” Bush said. “It wasn’t just people in my administration. A lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington, D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence.
“I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess,” Bush added.
When pressed by Gibson, Bush declined to “speculate” on whether he would still have gone to war if he knew Hussein didn’t have weapons of mass destruction.
“That is a do-over that I can’t do,” Bush said.
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Yeah yeah….Coulda shoulda woulda.
Good riddance. The best thing out of this mess is the GOP is toast for 2 decades.
that is what you libs said in 1976 with Cater and look what he got ya
President elect Obama has campaigned like a Jimmy Carter and if he governs like one conservative will be back on top in 2010 for another 20 years like before
#2 – Paulio Mitchelli
>>conservative will be back on top in 2010 for
>>another 20 years like before
Conservative not in power 20 year, kimo sabe. Bonzo and his feel-good smile and voodoo economics lasted 8 years, and Poppy Bush was kicked out after one term, along with Dan “Mr. Potatoe Head” Quayle.
And most people in the US would rather have a Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office than the current crop of retards, felons, and ventrilquists’ dummies. Not that Obama is going to govern like a Jimmy Carter, but even if he did, people would STILL be sighing in relief. Obama signifies change from the current toilet back-up we’ve been afflicted with for 8 years, and change is what we need.
¡¡Si se puede!!
“In other words, I didn’t anticipate war.”
Then why start one!? Fucker
Get thee behind me Satan and resign. Let the adults take charge for a while.
Too little too late Bush!
To all my peeps – “my bad”.
Is Bush throwing himself under the bus in an attempt to save the party? Oh, wait, he’s not smart enough to do that.
A “do-over?” Who’s writing this guy’s material?
The President hates America?
Did Bush say it like Fonzie? I can just picture it, “I was Wrroah, Wroongh, wwroanngg, Wwuwuronn…”
Sounds Like my 22 year old son. “I was wrong, but it wasn’t my fault.”
He needs to step up and admit it both guilt and responsibility. What a piece of shit this guy is.
“I think I was unprepared for war,”
No S**T Sherlock!
He had some very bad people on his team, starting with Richard Perle, Scooter Libby and Douglas Feith.
#10 “A ‘do-over?’ Who’s writing this guy’s material?”
Jesus Christ of course.
#15, Dave,
True, But he hired those people. He also picked Cheney and Rumsfeld along with a whole pile of other neo-cons.
When Bush blames some of the Congress he forgot that it was HIS briefings that convinced them to vote to back his negotiations. That those briefings were bullshit is irrelevant. That the information was cherry picked is just as irrelevant. Bush was still the President and the responsibility rests on his doorstep.
Bush will still go down in history as one of the worst Presidents of all times. Yet the radical neo-cons like #2, Paul Mitchell are still in denial. Instead of seeing their CinC admit he made a mistake, Paul has to jump all over Jimmy Carter. Carter has always had more credibility and honor in a fingernail clipping than Bush ever had. That you support him is your problem.
So where does Bush say I was wrong?
With all this talk of change, has there REALLY been any change at all? I mean are we better off since FDR? This “change” mantra has been going on long before Obama was even BORN.
Regardless who’s in office, there’s always a scandal, there’s always some sort of military action (if not a war), there’s always some negative view towards the president no matter how minor, or major the fuck-up was. It’s usually only after they have left office you hear any of the GOOD things that occurred during their administration, regardless if it’s an act of the president’s administration or not.
Americans always dwell on the negative bullshit that surrounds any and every publicly held office administration (not just the president) for as long as Americans can remember.
The change isn’t going to happen any time soon if the mass media, and we ourselves GET OVER this nitpicking at all the meaningless bullshit that might be said or done in any public office… Except for comedic entertainment purposes.
History is too kind. We adore leaders who pander to our prejudices, and despise those who achieve our expectations. The most loved have been those with a legacy of war and genocide. Bush, for all his homely affability, has left a trail of death which will win him the enduring love of his followers. Far from being an innocent in matters of violence, his career was built on it.
Doesn’t the buck stop with the “Decider”? I can’t believe he is copping out now, mere weeks before he leaves office. I can’t wait to see what he decides to write in his memoirs… not that I will buy and read them, but I am sure the reviews will tell me all I need to know.
Still a terrific liar right up to the day he dies. He and his Republican extremists ran an administration completely on lies, and we just sucked them right in and believed them. They are traitors and should be tried in court as such. No way is global unfair trade in Americas best interest. Yet they still say “we don’t need protectionism”. When the hell are we going to get someone who does want to “protect” America?
YOU NAME IT – HE FAILED !!!
***WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY*** !!!
I love how you Bush haters have demanded he admit to being wrong about Iraq for nearly eight years now, and when he does, you criticize him for it.
The only time Bush was ever wrong was when he said “nu-cu-lar.” Other than that one minor mistake, his presidency has been spectacular. The fact that America chose the person who is more completely different from Bush than anyone else and elected him to succeed Bush should in no way be interpreted as a repudiation of this great president. I think what really made the crucial difference in Bush’s presidency was his daily prayers for wisdom and divine guidance, without which we’d really be in a deep hole.
If Congress had simply declared war instead of giving Bush a bucket of money to pursue “aggressive negotiations,” we would be bitching about them instead.
Isn’t that Congress sneaky . . .
***WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY*** !!!
Really? American history continues, Bush is not the last President the United States will ever have. There will always be room for someone worse.
Once the blood-lust against Bush quiets down the true history of the Bush administration can be written and when the Foolaide runs out, maybe the Obamabots will be able to view our new President based upon facts rather that the fiction that got him elected.
#24 – Mr. Garrett
>>I love how you Bush haters have demanded he
>>admit to being wrong about Iraq for nearly
>>eight years now, and when he does, you
>>criticize him for it.
He never admits that “he was wrong”. He blames it on bad intelligence (closer to the truth than he knows, although I don’t think he meant “intelligence” in that sense).
Contrary to McC’s somewhat misleading headline, the real headline of the ABC News article is “Bush: ‘I Did Not Compromise My Principles’ President George W. Bush Says He Will Leave Office With ‘Head Held High’“.
#26 – LL
Shoulda, coulda, woulda.
As Deep Thought said, if you “think [you’re] unprepared for war”, then why the fuck go to war? Stupid moron let his Poppy complex get the better of him. He wasn’t prepared to clear brush at his Crawford “ranch”, much less run the country.
#44 out of 44 presidents (including one
-elect). Heck of a job, Dumbya. Heck of a job.
# 25 Gary, the dangerous infidel – You are herewith dubbed the king of sarcasm. LMAO
“A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein,” Bush said. “It wasn’t just people in my administration. A lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington, D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence.”
Um, wasn’t that intelligence largely funneled through administration officials that were far too eager to pass along bad info from the likes of the Iranian spy Chalabi and ‘curveball’ rather than listening to the inspectors and the intelligence that said unequivocally that there were no WMD?
This man acts like ‘intelligence’ is some autonomous machine in the wall like in Team America; World Police, and that he had no role in what intelligence was repeated and believed. Bad intelligence, bad!
America, Fuck Yea!