Bush Admits Mistakes but Defends War
He accepts responsibility for acting on flawed intelligence but says the invasion was justified. Aides hope his candor will boost his ratings.By Warren Vieth, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — President Bush said Wednesday that he accepted responsibility for deciding to wage war in Iraq in part on the basis of faulty intelligence, but that he remained convinced history would conclude he had done the right thing.Speaking hours before Iraqis began arriving at the polls to elect a new government, Bush acknowledged miscalculations and mistakes before and after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003.
It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush told a group of political leaders and scholars at the nonpartisan Woodrow Wilson Center. "As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq, and I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities."After the invasion, U.S. forces never found the weapons of mass destruction that the Bush administration had cited as a primary justification for removing Saddam Hussein from power.Even so, Bush said, "given Saddam's history and the lessons of Sept. 11, my decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam was a threat, and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power."Although Bush has previously cited flaws in prewar intelligence and defended his decision to enter Iraq, Wednesday's remarks were his most explicit statement that he bore responsibility for launching a war based in part on what turned out to be false claims.
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Okay...firstly, I knew this all along..yeah...and I didn't read these 'intelligence' reports..
Secondly, Bush, isn't the smartest one on the block..this I think is quite apparent..
Some thoughts about the whole Iraq war:
a) Going to war against Iraq and citing it as a war against terror was wrong..dead wrong
b) The reason being the presence of WMD was wrong...dead wrong....
c) Specifying just 6 months prior to the start of the war that Iraq did not have the capability
of being a threat to the US (Collin Powell) and then..magically 6 months later coming up
with an excuse to go to war ...is wrong..dead wrong..
d) There is no doubt that the world is better off without people like Saddam. Thats true.
But there are many such 'bad actors on the world stage'. Why single out only Saddam ?
Was there another reason ?
e) What did the US do when Saddam gassed the Kurds ? This was on Sr. Bush's watch ?
Or did US's close ties with Iraq (against Iran) cloud what should've been the appropriate
response ?
f) If we were really trying to help the Iraqi people, by getting rid of a dictator, on
humanitarian grounds, then what about the Palestinians ? Shouldn't they have come first ?
g) So many American soldiers have sacrificed their lives and so many families have
gone thru' so much pain for a war that started on wrong intel..false pretext..
what do u tell these families ? These are 19 year olds trying to make a life for themselves..
How do u explain your actions to the families that have suffered loses ?
h) All said and done, trying to impose democracy on a nation, is not the job of the US.
Some countries are just meant to be non democratic. Sometimes, it takes a tough leader
to get people with diverse backgrounds together..
i) Not understanding the culture of the land, or rather ignoring it, is bad...really bad..
j) In any case, while I am against the war, I am for the troops..withdrawing them now
would send a bad message to the world and the troops
Sorry..thats just my bit..needed to get it off my chest...your comments..?
posted by brain freeze at 5:56 PM
5 Comments:
") If we were really trying to help the Iraqi people, by getting rid of a dictator, on
humanitarian grounds, then what about the Palestinians ? Shouldn't they have come first ?"
What dictator is oppressing them? Their Primi Minister? I completely agree that he needs to be removed!
9:09 AM
Here is some food for thought - Letter from the father of a soldier who died in Iraq. I have spoken to soldiers who were on leave, soldiers who were on their way back and people who have extensive connections in the army. I have volunteered with Operation Give and have spoken to soldiers were on ground and collecting toys and supplies to give to the children in Iraq. I am yet to hear from one that it is a doomed operation. I am yet to hear from one of them that they are not proud of what they have accomplished there. I choose to believe those who are watching the progress first-hand to armchair quarterbacks.
Did you listen to what Joe Lieberman had to say after his 4th visit to Iraq? Also try Michael Yon for more first-hand information.
11:30 AM
well, I think its impossible for any external party to come in clinically and fix problems of nations which were already fragmented to start with.
People like Saddam have to be overthrown by people who have Iraqs best interest at heart and belong to the country and understand what the mission is really about.
GWB did not even understand the difference between the 3 major communities involved in the divide in Iraq until he was briefed about it in Jan 2003.
In my opinion if Saddam was to be toppled, only an internal uprising could have helped the country.
In fact American policy was good before the war, this was the very reason why there were no WMD in Iraq, nor did Saddam have the power to fight American troops when they walked into Iraq.
5:27 PM
npr buff, do you honestly believe Saddam wouldn't have taken up his weapons programs as soon as the sanctions were dropped? Do you support indefinite sanctions? Indefinite no-fly zones?
9:39 AM
the amount of time and money spent on no-fly zones would have been way less than what is being spent right now for an unnecessary war..
let alone the loss of so many American soldiers and innocent Iraqi civilians..
1:12 AM
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