Posted on 12/28/2006 9:36:03 AM PST by ARealMothersSonForever
WASHINGTON - Former President Gerald R. Ford questioned the Bush administration's rationale for the U.S. invasion and war in Iraq in interviews he granted on condition they not be released until after his death.
In his embargoed July 2004 interview with The Washington Post, Ford said the Iraq war was not justified, the Post reported Wednesday night.
Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously, the Post's Bob Woodward wrote. The story initially was posted on the newspaper's Internet site.
"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.
In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney — Ford's White House chief of staff — and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his secretary of defense.
"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."
In an interview given with the same ground rules to the New York Daily News last May, Ford said he thought Bush had erred by staking the invasion on claims Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
" Saddam Hussein was an evil person and there was justification to get rid of him," he observed to the Daily News. "But we shouldn't have put the basis on weapons of destruction. That was a bad mistake. Where does (Bush) get his advice?"
In the Daily News interview, Ford was more defensive about Cheney and Rumsfeld. Asked why Cheney had tanked in public opinion polls, he smiled. "Dick's a classy guy, but he's not an electrified orator," Ford said.
The former president did not like Bush's domestic surveillance program.
"It may be a necessary evil," Ford conceded. "I don't think it's a terrible transgression, but I would never do it. I was dumbfounded when I heard they were doing it."
Woodward wrote in the Post that his interview took place for a future book project, though the former president said his comments could be published at any time after his death.
In another interview released after his death, Ford told CBS News in 1984 that he initially was against using the phrase "long national nightmare" in his first speech as president following Richard Nixon's resignation, concerned that it was too harsh.
Ford said he reconsidered and sought his wife's advice. "After thinking about it and talking to Betty about it, we decided to leave it in and, boy, in retrospect, I'm awfully glad we did," he said.
In the Daily News interview, Ford, a few weeks from his 93rd birthday, showed frustration with the toll health problems had taken on him, saying he thought doctors were too strictly limiting what he could do.
At one point, he offered to share some butter pecan ice cream, his favorite dessert, with his guest, correspondent Thomas M. DeFrank.
Asked what his doctors would think about that, the former president said, "We have it anyhow."
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True but the policies of his administration were well to the right of GWB who pushed through the largest single increase in the welfare state since LBJ via prescription drugs. Interestingly, the size of government actually decreased under Ford, while under Bush it has skyrocketed.
Second, if ex-prez Ford felt this way he should have been man enough to say what he thought before he expired.
With all of the spin going on out there it is hard to understand what to believe??????
I can find a hundred people who disagree with him ...ya wanna listen to them?
If they are all ex-presidents of the United States of America, post a link and I will listen ;)
Most of the conservative ex-presidents warned about the dangers of foreign entanglements that were not congressionally declared wars. Heck, even President Bush questioned the wisdom of nation-building in 2000.
Actually, despite the hammering of Watergate, Ford came back almost won the 1976 election. He would have won had it not been for the pardon. The GOP made big gains in Congress in 1976.
The troll said 'Good riddance' to Gerald Ford, and called him a loser.
He was most certainly NOT a 'loser' in the sense that said troll intended it to mean.
ping
Once again ...the old policy of containment was a great success wasnt it?
No, containment did not work. Remind me again which NGO mandated the no-fly zones in Iraq after Desert Storm. Seems like it was the UN.
well, I sure do appreciate his helping get Carter votes for the Panama Canal Treaty!
May his RINO soul rest in peace
The main thing that I have against your arguments is that I believe and will continue to believe that there was a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda...If there was we had no choice but to do what we did....I assume you buy the lefts assertion that there is was no link ...I doubt Ford knew anything except what he read in the NY Times
Would you not agree that 90 years is kind of "getting up there"?You keep trying to convince me that Gerald Ford was senile when this interview was conducted because of his advanced age. Sorry, it's just not working. You need to find a better argument if you want to dismiss his opinions out of hand.
Yes, W has more than a bit of RINO in him. I, too, am aghast at his spending, but you know what? I remember in 2000 during his run against algore, Bush listed all the stuff he was going to spend our money on, which was pretty much what he's done. I was shocked at the time to hear such out of a Republican, but figured it was just typical political B.S. Love him or hate him, W does what he says he'll do. He warned us.
My main problem with Ford is Justice Stevens.
He didn't ever call a tune for the republicans or conservatives. He never sang a song we cons like to hear. In the political world he ain't no James Brown.
I've never seen evidence that these "links" amounted to anything more than occasional and fleeting contacts because of a common enemy. They cannot be described as an alliance or even cooperation. There certainly is no evidence that Saddam was involved in 9-11 and even the Bush administration agrees that the Atta meeting is a myth. Fundamentally, the AQ types hated Saddam and the secularist government he represented.
The above coming from a wimp and totally ineffective president. We had two horrible choices from both the major parties, for the presidency in "76."
You mean like when he pledged a more humble foreign policy and slammed nation building? Also, I don't remember him saying a thing about a massive prescription drugs giveaway back in 2000.
Isn't very interestingly, that when jimmuh "pee-NUT" or "slick willy" were in the W.H. we did NOT hear any treasonous remark from living GOP Ex-Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan or Bush running all over the map telling how rotten the U.S. is???
That's just the difference between (D) "White-Trash" and (R) Gentlemen!!!
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