Bush Logic Posted by James Lamond

In his recent interview with Charlie Gibson, the President spoke of regrets and do-overs in a sad attempt to shape his legacy.

Here is part of the exchange:

GIBSON: You've always said there's no do-overs as President. If you had one?

BUSH: I don't know -- the biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. 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. And, you know, that's not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess.

GIBSON: If the intelligence had been right, would there have been an Iraq war?

BUSH: Yes, because Saddam Hussein was unwilling to let the inspectors go in to determine whether or not the U.N. resolutions were being upheld. In other words, if he had had weapons of mass destruction, would there have been a war? Absolutely.

GIBSON: No, if you had known he didn't.

BUSH: Oh, I see what you're saying. You know, that's an interesting question. That is a do-over that I can't do. It's hard for me to speculate.

The President's responses are just disturbing on two levels.

First, his logic.  President Bush completely contradicts himself by first saying that the intelligence failure is his biggest regret, but if the intelligence had been correct, he still would have gone to war.  Does that make any sense?  He regrets that the intelligence was wrong, but if it was right he would have done the same thing.

Second, Bush is trying to erase his responsibility for the failure in Iraq by placing the blame on the flawed intelligence.  While others may have believed the manipulated intelligence the Bush administration offered, he is the one who rushed to war and completely mismanaged it once he was there.  He does not seem to regret his doctrine of "preventative war" and spreading democracy to the Middle East, his dismissal of allies, the lack of preparation for war, or the complete lack of understanding of the country in which he was invading.  These combined with the the utter mismanagement of the war effort by the Bush administration is what led to the disaster, we see today- not just the fact that there were no WMDs in Iraq.

By reading the president's responses in the the interview, one would think that the only problem in Iraq is that we didn't find WMDs.  The truth is that there is so much more went wrong with the war than just the intelligence.  It was also the failed policies of the administration.  Ultimately the blame falls on the president himself.

Comments

[tao9]

Surge, SOFA, & SecDef Obama Seque = Failure?
Do you read the papers, Jamie darlin'?

[Nick]

Clearly, Bush is attempting to re-write his legacy through these interviews. He's trying to deflect as much of the blame as possible. "It wasn't me, it was the intelligence." "The financial crisis started before my time."

You're right- he's in charge, he made the decisions, he had the power of oversight. He's just not owning up to his failures.

Question is: I wonder if he actually believe in the narrative he's spewing to the public?

[Jaime]

Here is the Bush logic that failed so many times. Go ahead, take this 'trip down memory lane' here... http://commera.blogspot.com/2008/12/path-to-victory.html It's embarrassing how many times you will be reminded how bad it was...

[twelve sky Gold]

Welcome to our game world, my friend asks me to buy some 12sky gold . I do not know how to use the twelvesky Gold ; my friend tells me how to use. I will thank for my friends bringing me in this world. I am not regret to buy 12Sky Silver Coins . We all love game, if you want to play it, please buy 12 sky gold and join us. Please do not hesitate to have game.

[requiem gold]

When you have requiem gold, you will become strong. With requiem lant, you can upgrade and admire by others. You can use requiem money to start the journey of the world. So, do not hesitate, let us move to buy cheap requiem lant

[runescape money]

At present, I want to say thanks to the people who stole my account, if he did not to do that, I would not play rs, I would not have rs gold . Although I have little runescape money , I will on the way of the rs for long time.

[kal geons]

I want to buy some kal geons , but I do not know where to buy and how to buy kal gold .

[age of conan gold]

If you have money to buy age of conan gold, you will find it is very useful. Earning conan gold is not so hard. Try your best and then you can get it.

[Fake Dolce & Gabanna Bags]

If you have money to buy age of conan gold, you will find it is very useful. Earning conan gold is not so hard. Try your best and then you can get it.

[replica Tiffany Ring]

If you have money to buy age of conan gold, you will find it is very useful. Earning conan gold is not so hard. Try your best and then you can get it.