President Bush made some interesting comments about his readiness to command the country in wartime and his regrets about the intelligence that his administration relied on before the invasion of Iraq. He also said the 2008 election, which delivered the White House to Democrat Barack Obama, “was a repudiation of Republicans.” Here‘s an excerpt from the interview with Charles Gibson of World News:
* What were you most unprepared for?
Well, I think I was unprepared for war. In other words, I didn‘t campaign and say, “Please vote for me, I‘ll be able to handle an attack.” In other words, I didn‘t anticipate war. Presidents -- one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.
* You said you were not going to be in the business of nation-building. And so much of what you had to do was nation-building.
Well, what I said was, in the course of a debate, I said the military shouldn‘t be used to build nations. In this case, it turns out the military, in my judgment, was needed to remove threats to our security, and after that removal, the military, as well as our diplomatic corps, needed to help rebuild after tyrannical situations.
* Was there a time when you thought, if I do this I will be compromising my principles -
Yes.
* -- some decision where you really thought that that was at issue?
Yes.
* What?
The pullout of Iraq. It would have compromised the principle that when you put kids into harm‘s way, you go in to win. And it was a tough call, particularly, since a lot of people were advising for me to get out of Iraq, or pull back in Iraq, or -- and rather than listen to -- I mean, I listened to a lot of voices, but ultimately, I listened to this voice: I‘m not going to let your son die in vain; I believe we can win; I‘m going to do what it takes to win in Iraq.
* You‘ve always said there‘s no do-overs as President. If you had one?
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.
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