President Bush regrets his legacy as man who wanted war

President Bush regrets his legacy as man who wanted war

www.timesonline.co.uk

President Bush has admitted to The Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a “guy really anxious for war” in Iraq. He said that his aim now was to leave his successor a legacy of international diplomacy for tackling Iran.

In an exclusive interview, he expressed regret at the bitter divisions over the war and said that he was troubled about how his country had been misunderstood. “I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric.”

(visit the link for the full news article)

Phrases such as “bring them on” or “dead or alive”, he said, “indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace”. He said that he found it very painful “to put youngsters in harm’s way”. He added: “I try to meet with as many of the families as I can. And I have an obligation to comfort and console as best as I possibly can. I also have an obligation to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain.”

Oh my god this story makes me angry! He WAS a "guy really anxious for war"! He was NOT "a man of peace". Where the hell does he get off trying to play the poor, misunderstood president? I guess I knew the "pity me", "I never wanted war but had to do it" speech was going to come sooner or later but I sure didn't realize how disgusting it would sound. Un. Freaking. Real.


www.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

You see how the man is changing his rhetoric? Surely the man is beginning to worry at the thought of leaving the office hated and despised. It looks like Bush is feeling a little bit insecure Good, I hope the git has nightmares for the rest of his life. I hope his insecurities lead him to the bottom of the bottle.

He's a despicable man with no morals.

Poor guy... I got a little teary eyed there. I feel terrible that he has been so misunderstood. He wasn't a "war president" (his words), he was a greed president. Look at how many of his cronies he has made rich since taking office?

Of all the things that he has done wrong since being in office, the war is only a small part.

And he still doesn't get it...

He talks about sending our troops into harms way, but not a mention of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's that have been killed or maimed, the entire country's infrastructure demolished, and the close to 2 million forced out of their country as refugees.

George... the world is not going to offer you sympathy because 4000 of the aggressor's heavily armed troops died in a five year long campaign. It's about the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS STUPID.

BAH!

He's just trying to secure his legacy - same as blair has been doing.

Blair getting all teary eyed and saying he made mistakes but tried his best - about time bush picked a trick off blair instead of the other way round.

If there's any justice in the world, then shrub will be remembered for exactly what he was.

He knew exactly what he was doing - that's why we heard the phrase "weapons of mass destruction" 935 times in 2 years.

I believe the words "I'm a wartime president" was enough for me. This man is a complete scumbag. Bottomline.

I'm at a loss for words over how brazen this turd is.

This is almost funny.

He regrets......

I regret to inform you, mr. Bush that you are an evil scumbag and there is no excuse for YOU.

Did he cry when he uttered this lie? Tears flow so easily when you're a demon.

Someone probably gave him a reality check along these lines: "errr, sir, I think you might want to consider that if this gets much worse than it already is people will seriously start considering assassinating you, so you have more than impeachment to worry about".

I do not advocate or endorse assassination, let me be clear about that, but the increased risk of it is a natural consequence of what he's done. You can't throw hundreds of thousands of troops into a hellhole with crap body armour and hummers instead of APV's and keep them there for nearly a decade and not end up with a lot of very bitter enemies with high caliber weoponry. He can thank his lucky stars americans are so patriotic, for if they did not respect the post of commander and chief so much this guy would already be pushing up daisys.

Originally posted by Zepherian
I do not advocate or endorse assassination, let me be clear about that...

It is wise to be extremely careful about making statements like that. Years ago I was hosting a domain that had various "alternative" sites on it, and one of the webmasters posted a little gif file that showed B%^$'s head exploding. It was one of those joke things and the site was NOT even about politics.

The secret service actually contacted my web host and inquired about it. They apparently take any and all threats, no matter how silly, very seriously.

I think it's interesting that CNN has the complete opposite spin on the story and claim he stated he has NO regrets.

CNN
MESEBERG, Germany (CNN) -- U.S. President George W. Bush claimed Wednesday that he had no regrets about the decision to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein in 2003 and reiterated his determination to force Iran to halt its nuclear program.

"Removing Saddam Hussein made the world a safer place," Bush said. But he admitted once again that he regretted the tough rhetoric he had used in the run-up to the conflict which had made it appear he was eager to go to war.

Removing Saddam Hussein made the world a safer place???

George.. reality just called. It wants you to come back now.

reply to post by kleverone


Ditto for you, forum moderator engaging in ad hom attacks. So, by extension, me calling you a bottom line scum bag should be "a-ok" ?

Some editing:

Apparently ad-hom attacks are okay so long as you are toeing the "correct" political ideology? Calling CIT liers (IMO) gets the post wiped and a warning, but calling our President a "scum bag", is OK? Is this the kind of discourse you officially sponser at ATS? Is your post adding to, or subtracting from the quality of posts in these forums?

Look, disagree with the President all you want - I sure do - but calling him a "Scum bag" lowers you and these forums.

[edit on 11-6-2008 by SlightlyAbovePar]

I think I was carefull and unambiguous enough in my statement. It is not personal sentiment but a comment on what I percieve is the reality of the current social environment in the US.

But let me repeat, I do NOT advocate, endorse, and to further clarify, even encourage political assassination or any form of murder, I am from the first country that abolished the death penalty and am proud of that aspect of our history.

However, I do believe in karma, and it's inevitable with all the G. Bush has done that he has made a lot of enemies and has a lot of hate focused on him and it is entirely possible that negativity could be manifested as violence. This is a reality everyone knows and is the reason why presidents and former presidents have permanent security details. This observation is done from a distance without direct participation.

I would rather see bush impeached and criminally convicted than actually hurt physically in any way, it would be a valuable step in healing the american political and governmental system and would be much better for the nation than a traumatic event like an assassination.

“I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric.” -Bush

Now by "rhetoric" does he mean the blatant lies he not only told himself, but coerced spokepersons for his Administration into repeating as well?

In retrospect, I doubt things would have turned out the same if he had told the truth. I mean - 4,000 U.S. countrymen and women would still be alive, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis would be alive, sever psychological scarring for thousands of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians would have never occured and the entire world wouldn't hate us. Some still would, as always, but at least our allies would still think fondly.

I agree with Bush 100%! He could have used a different "rhetoric". Imagine what could have happened if he had simply said: I want to finish what my daddy started and make lots of money. That would have been much more truthful, although I doubt things would have worked out quite the same for him...

I'm not too surprised that the press is going to help him try to rewrite recent history for those of us distracted by the struggle to endure the global situation now.

Our children will read this and other such things a decade from now and think, ":..., well, maybe he was misunderstood..." and that will be just fine....

The press, reporters, editors, should have jumped down his throat at the time, questioning the unmitigated gall of trying to 'repaint' reality before people who witnessed what, and how it happened. Instead they took their little photocopied handouts and complimentary notepads and pencils and went back to their offices, because that was easier to do.

I just caught this little gem

Removing Saddam Hussein made the world a safer place,"

Really? With a show of hands, who thinks the world is safer now than it was before we went to Iraq? Anyone?

reply to post by SlightlyAbovePar


Sounds like there is some history between you two, if so, I would suggest U2U? If not, then your point is not valid in my opinion.

Bush, in this case, is a subject being discussed and kleverone is entitled to his opinion about him. Since President Bush is the subject at hand, I see no reason why it's not possible he could be a scumbag. Instead, I would suggest asking kleverone proof of this. I don't think it would be hard for him to make a case, given the definition of what it means to be a scumbag...

You calling kleverone a "scumbag" would not be valid under the T&C because you would be attacking a poster and not the subject material - President Bush and his idiotic double-speak.

Originally posted by paul76
You see how the man is changing his rhetoric? Surely the man is beginning to worry at the thought of leaving the office hated and despised.

I think it's TOO LATE for that one!! Hated and despised?? I think if there were stronger words than those, they would be used here to describe the level of disdain for this man, if you can even call him that...I say he's a coward, ****ing scum!!
However, he's not that only Resident of the White House that can be labeled as such. We can't forget that the problems we face now are the net result of numerous past presidencies, even as far back as the earliest years of this country and on both sides of the aisle.
But for Bush to come out now and talk about how he regrets spewing out his ridiculous war rhetoric time and time again while at the same time he keeps saying that, "all options are on the table" when it comes to Iran is nothing short of some type of mental disorder, perhaps dimensia or he could be a schizo....we already know he's a drunken fool who can piece a sentence together about as well as a 7th grader but that's another topic.

His legacy will go down as one of the worst Presidents of all and a war time president who probably would have been better off as the commander-in-chief of the nearest snowball fight, NOT our military!!

Cheers,
Purduegrad05

Two Words:

Plausible Deniability

Interesting that 2 days out from the Builderberger meeting, the US and most of the EU agree to even stronger sanctions and isolation against Iran.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said more sanctions will be placed on Iran if the government continues to ignore demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
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Bush also reiterated that all options remain open regarding Iran, after talks in Germany with Merkel.

``All options are on the table, and my first choice is to solve this diplomatically,'' Bush said today at a press conference with Merkel. ``If they choose to continue to be obstinate, there will be additional sanctions.''
[1]

This was exactly what happened to Iraq. 11th hour additional sanctions and the BAM, the US invades.

This is a great way for Bush to argue that he had no choice to attack Iran, and yet still claim he tried everything with diplomacy.

Originally posted by paul76
You see how the man is changing his rhetoric? Surely the man is beginning to worry at the thought of leaving the office hated and despised. It looks like Bush is feeling a little bit insecure

Good, I hope the git has nightmares for the rest of his life. I hope his insecurities lead him to the bottom of the bottle.

He's a despicable man with no morals.

Bush really isn't evil, Cheney is evil; all of the information we have gathered from former White House members along with 9/11 suggest that Bush has been run over by Cheney. If their was indeed a 9/11 conspiracy, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Cheney was behind it. Bush lost all communications during that day until he returned to Washington...and Cheney is the man who suggested we bomb Iraq...he's a pretty horrible man. Bush, imo just got completely ran over by the frauds that served him. I think history, time and new records will show us just how out of touch Bush was with the White House operations...and that indeed Cheney was running the show.

[edit on 11-6-2008 by yellowcard]