Ford had problems with Bush Iraq policy

AP via Yahoo ^ | December 28, 2006 | NA

[Continental Soldier]

Woodward couldn't wait to toss repectful rememberance of Gerald Ford, a decent man, under the bus of partisan political meaness. Even though such behavior is now expected from the likes of Woodward and other leftists like him, one can't help but be reminded of a heavy question, once asked in another political era -- "Have you no decency, sir?"

[ARealMothersSonForever]

You tell them all how the GOP is going to run this war! The GOP will stay the course, call up more troops, and make an eternal commitment. The troops will stay there as long as there is a GOP president and majority in Congress, by golly.

Oh wait. The GOP lost the majority in congress. What to do now? How conservative is it to spend $2 trillion to prop up a corrupt Shiite Hezbullah dominated Iraq?

Keep it up with GOP policies like that, and you will have Hillary and Edwards getting more conservative every day. Thanks for nothing.

[ohioWfan]

The point is that the left is using a 93 year old, now deceased, kind, gentle, but not too foreign policy savvy moderate, not conservative FORMER President to continue its attack on our mission in Iraq.

And some on FR are cheering them on.

[pepperdog]

Well, isn't the WashPost a classy bunch? The guy is not yet cold and they are already using the occasion of his death to try to discredit President Bush. If they had any class they would have at least waited until after the funeral, but they are fearful of losing a high visibility opportunity to bash Bush. I haven't listened to the interview but I did read the excerpt posted here and what I see is that Ford disagreed with the reason(WMD)not the necessity of dethroning Saddam.

The WashPost is a disgusting disgrace of a newspaper that tries to control and promote their political agenda by selective reporting. They will never, ever get over their personal thrill of having brought a duly elected President down for an insignificant burglary that if committed by a Dem group would have been excused as a "joke".

[ohioWfan]

They will never, ever get over their personal thrill of having brought a duly elected President down for an insignificant burglary that if committed by a Dem group would have been excused as a "joke".

Well said!

[kublia khan]

Not only have you expressed my thoughts precisely but you have also added to my vocabulary while doing so, I thank you sir, I am in your debt.

[Blue State Insurgent]

Congress gave 23 reasons for the invasion. It was the MSM that decided to boil it all down to WMD.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Ford also opposed the war because he was against Bush's Wilsonian policy of spreading democracy. Ford has his faults but Bush's Iraq disaster proves that he was right on that issue.

[My2Cents]

he was afflicted with the same appeasement/spineless gene that has de-balled countless Americans over the last 4 decades

His foreign policy, such as it was, was crafted by "the realists," the same people who did nothing about Islamist terrorism until it hit home in a spectacular way on 9/11. As the GOP leader of the House, he was accustomed to being in the minority, and was willing to engage the Democrats in a way which would have ensured the GOP's minority status for eternity.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Keep on plugging. The facts (i.e. the obvious Bush/neocon disaster in Iraq) are on your side. Back in the late 1990s, conservatives actually opposed Wilsonian nation building....that was before Bush led them down the garden path.

[AmericanChef]

Well, that tears it! If I'd known what Gerry was thinking I NEVER would've supported the war in Iraq. Um...sure.

I can envision hoards of lefties ripping off their old "Wellstone!" stickers and replacing them with "What Would Gerry Do?"

Oh - the world has suddenly turned upside down!/sarc

[Patrick1]

Not so fast my friends.

---

A Different Take on Ford and the Iraq War: While Bob Woodward says that the late President Gerald Ford told him he was against the war in Iraq, Thomas DeFrank @ NY Daily News reports otherwise: “Ford was a few weeks shy of his 93rd birthday as we chatted for about 45 minutes. He’d been visited by President Bush three weeks earlier and said he’d told Bush he supported the war in Iraq but that the 43rd President had erred by staking the invasion on weapons of mass destruction.”

[Earthdweller]

"Congress gave 23 reasons for the invasion. It was the MSM that decided to boil it all down to WMD."

Thank God someone else noticed. I thought I was the only one.

[kublia khan]

"I don't think I would have gone to war," Ford told Woodward a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion."

The very fact that he would give an interview to the man who led the charge to unseat his former boss; a man (Nixon) who was more presidential when he was taking a sh** then Mr.Ford ever was even on the very best of his days speaks volumes of his own lack of judgment. It is also quite revealing as to where he stands in regards to fealty towards the party that was so faithful to him for more than five decades.

[Wuli]

It matters not whether or not it is "hearsay". It matters not that it is the words of Gerald Ford. He was entitled to his opinion. That does not make his opinion any more of an "authority" on the subject than anyone elses. He has been out of office, out of the intelligence information loop, out of the policy making chair for over thirty years. He was a nice guy. May he rest in peace.

But there is one reason and only one reason this opinion of Ford's is being reported: it is an opinion supported by those reporting it. You can be damn sure that if Ford had been on record as supporting the Iraq decision, it would not warrant a feature story at this time. It is reported now on the same basis as is the Iraq-war opinions of George Clooney - their celebrity value and the use of that celebrity value to market that opinion, period.

[baiamonte]

Don't beleive anything Bob Woodward writes. Almost none of it is verifiable and I for one, think he makes most of it up. I think he's a scumbag deluxe.

[GRRRRR]

So what...Does that make him bad?

[msnimje]

I want to hear what he said AFTER this clip.

[Austin Willard Wright]

the world has suddenly turned upside down.

This statement is closer to the truth than you think. Back in 2003, the Wilsonians on FR were dismissing the insurgents as just a bunch of holdouts who were taking potshots (and would soon disappear) or would lose heart once Saddam was captured, pooh poohed the possiblity of sectarian violence, predicted that the the Iraqi war would "pay for itself" via oil, predicated that the toppling of Saddam would set off a rapid democratic revolution in the Middle East, predicted that the Iraqis wanted freedom and democracy (they elected Shi'ite fundamentalists instead) etc. The evidence is in. All these predictions were wrong. The Wilsonians were right and those who opposed getting into this quagmire were right.

[RightWhale]

Who?
Pres Ford?
Woodward?
AP?