Bush admits to ABC: I was 'unprepared for war." Do you accept Bush's apology?

[240 is Back]

Five years after he declared victory in Iraq on the US aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, President George W. Bush says he was "unprepared" for a war in Iraq that has gone on to claim thousands of American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

"I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess," Bush tells ABC's Charlie Gibson in an interview to be broadcast tonight, and said he didn't know if he'd have gone to war if he didn't think there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"That is a do-over that I can't do," Bush said.

He said incorrect intelligence about Saddam Hussein's arsenal was the "biggest regret of all the presidency."

"I think I was unprepared for war," Bush remarked. "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."

[Mark Kerr]

Bush: "I Was Unprepared For War," "I'm Sorry" For The Economic Crisis

President Bush let it all out today during an interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson. Bush delivered a mea culpa on Iraq, the economic crisis and the 2008 election outcome for Republicans.

Below are three write-ups on different parts of the interview:

From ABC News: Bush on the Iraq War...

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
President George W. Bush expressed remorse that the global financial crisis has cost jobs and harmed retirement accounts and said he'll back more government intervention if needed to ease the recession.

From AP: Bush on the economic crisis...

"I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's "World News," which was airing Monday. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."

President Bush told an interviewer that his presidency may have helped Barack Obama win the White House.

From CNN: Bush on helping lose the election for McCain...

"I think it was a repudiation of Republicans," he told Charlie Gibson of ABC News, according to a transcript released by the network Monday. "And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy."

[Deicide]

Bush: "I Was Unprepared For War," "I'm Sorry" For The Economic Crisis

President Bush let it all out today during an interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson. Bush delivered a mea culpa on Iraq, the economic crisis and the 2008 election outcome for Republicans.

Below are three write-ups on different parts of the interview:

From ABC News: Bush on the Iraq War...

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
President George W. Bush expressed remorse that the global financial crisis has cost jobs and harmed retirement accounts and said he'll back more government intervention if needed to ease the recession.

From AP: Bush on the economic crisis...

"I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's "World News," which was airing Monday. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."

President Bush told an interviewer that his presidency may have helped Barack Obama win the White House.

From CNN: Bush on helping lose the election for McCain...

"I think it was a repudiation of Republicans," he told Charlie Gibson of ABC News, according to a transcript released by the network Monday. "And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy."

So fucking lame...

[headhuntersix]

Fine....hopefully Obama won't be doing the same from a Bunker as one of our cities goes up in smoke. Bush kept em over there. I expect Obama to do the same.

[Deicide]

Fine....hopefully Obama won't be doing the same from a Bunker as one of our cities goes up in smoke. Bush kept em over there. I expect Obama to do the same.

Sometimes HH6 I think your excessive jingoism and general knee-jerk comments must be comical in origin and then I realise all you know is how to shoot things and you never learnt how to think.

[stormshadow]

Sometimes HH6 I think your excessive jingoism and general knee-jerk comments must be comical in origin and then I realise all you know is how to shoot things and you never learnt how to think.

Print that and hang it on a wall, well said.

[headhuntersix]

Sometimes HH6 I think your excessive jingoism and general knee-jerk comments must be comical in origin and then I realise all you know is how to shoot things and you never learnt how to think.

Sometimes ur naive  super ridiculous world view is so comical I'd laugh, if it weren't so dangerous. But then I realize all u know how to do is teach English and surround urself in academic leftist nutbags...those who can't...teach. Not sure what u can't do, but u appear to be afraid of the real world.

[Dan-O]

Sometimes HH6 I think your excessive jingoism and general knee-jerk comments must be comical in origin and then I realise all you know is how to shoot things and you never learnt how to think.

Print that and hang it on a wall, well said.

Seriously...  not that HH6 needs anyone to fight his battles for him...  but come ON...  when either of you have been in the trenches and seen the world from a soldier's perspective then maybe you'll be qualified to criticize HH6's viewpoint and judge whether or not he's capable of thinking.

But methinks you're both a couple of pansies who have had it too easy for too long and gotten too soft and forgotten all about some of life's harsher realities.

[headhuntersix]

Decide is the same guy who absolutly hates the Koreans.....funny thing, a holier then thou Lib hating somebody.  I guess first hand experience changes ones mind and shades opinion. I'm not sure why he hates em, they are what they are...cheap...rude..and generally a pain in the ass, but its part of the charm.

[Dan-O]

It just pisses me off to hear people ragging on our military...  without our military power you can bet your ass we (the US) would be getting buttfucked by all sorts of nutjobs and despots from around the globe.  And these same people who think they're so smart and progressive would be singing an entirely different tune.  They have no idea.

[240 is Back]

It just pisses me off to hear people ragging on our military...  without our military power you can bet your ass we (the US) would be getting buttfucked by all sorts of nutjobs and despots from around the globe.  And these same people who think they're so smart and progressive would be singing an entirely different tune.  They have no idea.

eh, I don't know about this.

Are the base and 50k troops in South Korea keeping us safe, when we have a wide open border with Canada and Mexico?

If the bad guys really wanted in, they wouldn't need Saudi student visas... they could travel to mexico and walk right into USA.

We have 800+ bases.  China is next with 80.  We have more military spending than the next 23 nations (including all of NATO) combined.

Yet you have people who say we need MORE MORE MORE.  The cost of all this military spending is a very weak dollar.  DOW is lower today than it was in 2000.  Without the trillions Bush has borrowed for military expansion, our buck would be worth a lot more. 

And stopping attacks?  Shit, a lot more americans died on bush's watch than on clintons.  How many Americans have died in iraq?  4200?  On 9/11?  2900?

Clinton wanted to cut military spending, and did.  Bush got into office and kept the spending low for 9 months until 911.

[Dan-O]

I'm not referring to any one issue or global hotspot specifically.  Just to wisecracks like Deicide's where he basically accused HH6 of being a meathead who only knows how to shoot things.  It's not even about MORE MORE MORE, it's about crackpots and nutjobs who do (and always will) hate the US and everything we stand for and aren't going to go away just because we wish everyone would play nice.  It's about badmouthing the US military right here and now.

You know what--who gives a shit how many bases another country has or where the US ranks in military spending.  That means NOTHING.  We're the US and like it or not, we're not any of those other countries.  It's apples and oranges.  If you feel apologetic for being the world's superpower, then STFU or GTFO.

OK...  I'm gonna eat some dinner and maybe that will put me in a slightly better mood.

[danielson]

I accept his apology. His job is a lot harder than you guys think. Sure he could have decided to chat about nonsensical bullshit all day on a message board like us Getbiggers, but he had higher aspirations. You gotta respect the mans ambition, even if he made a few mistakes. 

[Dan-O]

And FURTHERMORE...




hahahaha, j/k, I'm done.

[24KT]

I'm not referring to any one issue or global hotspot specifically.  Just to wisecracks like Deicide's where he basically accused HH6 of being a meathead who only knows how to shoot things.

pssst: Hate to break it to you Dan-o, but HH6 is a meathead who only knows how to shoot things. 
That's not saying ALL members of the US military are like that, but HH6 is. Hey, the military needs guys like that.

[Rimbaud]

Do I accept his appology? No, he lied over & over about the war & the reasons for going to war & made the country worse off then before the war.

Note: Countdown to Coach coming on to tell us how great of a president Bush was/is & how going into Iraq was the best thing we could've done for the country.

[Hedgehog]

Fine....hopefully Obama won't be doing the same from a Bunker as one of our cities goes up in smoke. Bush kept em over there. I expect Obama to do the same.

Funny, you seem to have become quite the Obama guy as of late, my friend.


What's up with that?

I'm not buying this whole "American Dream" shtick about Obama just yet.

[headhuntersix]

pssst: Hate to break it to you Dan-o, but HH6 is a meathead who only knows how to shoot things. 
That's not saying ALL members of the US military are like that, but HH6 is. Hey, the military needs guys like that.

Jag while u sit around and try and defraud millions with ur fuel caps...I actually accomplish something. Its amazing watching the Left disparge the military. My particular job in the Army takes alot more then shooting people. Look up all the things Information Operations incompasses. I'm trained to plan for and control everything from Computer network intrusions to Psyops....plus all the media related things I do. Jag, u put fake pills in a gas tank and call its saving the planet. Give me a break.

[Hedgehog]

Jag while u sit around and try and defraud millions with ur fuel caps...I actually accomplish something. Its amazing watching the Left disparge the military. My particular job in the Army takes alot more then shooting people. Look up all the things Information Operations incompasses. I'm trained to plan for and control everything from Computer network intrusions to Psyops....plus all the media related things I do. Jag, u put fake pills in a gas tank and call its saving the planet. Give me a break.

We may not always agree on issues.

Eg, I disagree with you on how the military could be modernized, restructured and rationalized, just like any other major corporation.

But I'll always give you credit for making an honest effort to make this world a better place.

[headhuntersix]

I'd like to hear ur thoughts. I'm not sure we'd disagree widely

[headhuntersix]

 ....that advances the discussion...good job.

[Hedgehog]

I'd like to hear ur thoughts. I'm not sure we'd disagree widely

Alright.

I'll break it down roughly:

The executive and managing unit:I think the Military needs to recruit a whole lot more from business schools. Have a good mix of suits and uniforms among the executives.

That would make the Military more cost effective.

Fighting units:
Phase out the big mech divisions, the big artilleries and similar.
Instead invest in special forces, small mobile units.
The threat is different from 50 years ago - now it's not about facing potentially an army of 100 000 soldiers. But rather small cells of maybe 5-100 fighters in each.
So change the weaponry as well.

Stop using a few of the big carriers. Develop new attack routines for dealing with eg modern oil tanker pirates.


Reforming the National Guard:
I see some kind of new domestic anti-terrorist force, similar to the MEK and SEK in Germany that similar to the German GSG-9.
Small units, specialized on urban warfare, all across the USA, who would be ready to hit potential threats within the hour.

The main thing though - spend money on quality.

Not quantity.

If USA have 2 plus million soldiers today and would reduce that to 500 000 it would mean a lot less soldiers.

But if you give all of them the same resources that the elite forces gets today, you really think the US army would be less potent?

Go for quality - not quantity.


This is just how I see it.

Downsizing and rationalizing is normal in the corporate world.

But somehow it's not in the Military.

[Decker]

Fine....hopefully Obama won't be doing the same from a Bunker as one of our cities goes up in smoke. Bush kept em over there. I expect Obama to do the same.

Nonsense.  Fight 'em over there instead of here...tell that to Spain and Great Britain. 

[Decker]

Here's Bush lying about the invasion in that same interview:  (this asshole just can't stop lying)

According to the text of the ABC News interview, which was released Dec. 1, Gibson asked Bush, “If the [U.S.] intelligence had been right [and revealed no Iraq WMD], would there have been an Iraq War?”

Bush answered, “Yes, because Saddam Hussein was unwilling to let the inspectors go in to determine whether or not the U.N. resolutions were being upheld.”
Of course, the historical record is clear: Hussein did let U.N. arms inspectors into Iraq in the fall of 2002 to search any site of their choosing. Their travels around Iraq in white vans were recorded daily by the international news media, as they found no evidence that Iraq had WMD stockpiles, even at sites targeted by U.S. intelligence.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/120108c.html

[Hedgehog]

Here's Bush lying about the invasion in that same interview:  (this asshole just can't stop lying)

According to the text of the ABC News interview, which was released Dec. 1, Gibson asked Bush, “If the [U.S.] intelligence had been right [and revealed no Iraq WMD], would there have been an Iraq War?”

Bush answered, “Yes, because Saddam Hussein was unwilling to let the inspectors go in to determine whether or not the U.N. resolutions were being upheld.”
Of course, the historical record is clear: Hussein did let U.N. arms inspectors into Iraq in the fall of 2002 to search any site of their choosing. Their travels around Iraq in white vans were recorded daily by the international news media, as they found no evidence that Iraq had WMD stockpiles, even at sites targeted by U.S. intelligence.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/120108c.html

Haha.

Bush is a piece of work for sure.

I just think he's a bit on the dumb side.

Not really think he's lying, lying in the sense the rest of us would be. Just think it's wishful thinking on his part - he's in denial.

Incredible how this man has been the most powerful man in the world for 8 years.

We've actually survived relatively unscathed from it.

A big financial crisis and a few strained foreign relations - it could've been much worse.

We could've easily been in a nucelar war or something else.