Ford had problems with Bush Iraq policy

AP via Yahoo ^ | December 28, 2006 | NA

[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."

___

[Zman516]

Also, I don't remember him saying a thing about a massive prescription drugs giveaway back in 2000.

I do.

Of course, he didn't use the term "massive".

[RightFighter]

The point of this whole thing is - when these interviews took place, Ford was like 90 years old! The key question is, who puts any stock at all into what a 90 year old says about anything? Now that Billy Graham is old, he's been recorded saying that he believes Muslims are going to heaven - that's not what Billy Graham really believes, but he's so old he's started to lose his mind. We can't really trust that what someone of such an advanced age says is even their true opinion of the matter at hand.

[marmar]

I have 6 brothers and only one served. The thing is that for me, it is in my blood. I love this country and I know that it is worth dieing for. I have been all over the world and nothing compares to what we have here. The flag is a thing of beauty, for what it stand for...... Martha

[Dixie Yooper]

Although it did happen, I find it very hard to believe that Ford would sit for an interview with Woodward of all people. After the Casey fiasco, I'm surprised anyone would have anything to do with him.

[fortheDeclaration]

Wow. Prolonged?? Do you know how long we 'occupied' Germany and Japan? And how do you suppose Germany and Japan came to have democracies after they were run by dictators and emperors whom we deposed? Correction. We never "deposed the Japanese emperor. Despite the fact that he was depicted him as on a par with Hitler during the war, Truman sensibly overruled his New Deal advisors who demanded unconditional surrender and accepted the Japanese condition that Hirohito be kept on his throne.

Yes, the emperor was kept on the throne, but the new Constitution stripped him of all political power.

As to democracy, as Ohioan points out Germany (unlike Iraq) had recent experience with this system in the Weimar Republic. Japan did too though to a much more limited extent in the 1920s. Interestingly, we let the Japanese vote in all-Japan elections in 1946 (less than a year after Hiroshima) under their pre-war constitution!!!

As for experience that Germany and Japan had had with Democracy, it had been bad experiences, resulting in unstable governments and the rise of thugs to power.

The U.S. gave stability to both nations (McCarthur essentially writing the 1946 Japanese Constitution) and thus both nations embraced the concept that the ballot was better than the bullet in resolving differences.

[Earthdweller]

"You keep trying to convince me that Gerald Ford was senile...."

No..I keep asking you questions you will not answer. Would you vote for a 90 year old for POTUS and put national security in the hands of a person with probable memory loss , difficulty with problem solving and possible beginning stages of dementia?

The probable answer, of course not.

To say that Ford's opinion of the WOT and Iraq, good or bad, in the twilight of his years, is the ultimate answer to the calling of this young generation is at least as absurd as any question I have asked you.

So if you can't answer honestly, don't expect to convince me that you have a handle on the normal affects of aging on the cognition of the extreme elderly.

Now, can we get on with mourning his death without exploiting him further for political purposes and TV ratings? Thank you.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

I think Woodward jumped the shark back when his report of the deathbed confession of Bill Casey was published. That had no real credibility... but you're right, the revelations about Deep Throat were similar and much inflated. The Woodward "schtick" has really outlived its usefullness: threatening the Administration/subject with a damning expose unless they surrender to the Woodward Blackmail. Works for the Colin Powells of this world but I think that may be about it. I think even the Clintons no longer feel threatened by his ilk.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

The number of Ford boosters who have appeared on FR is mindboggling.

I don't consider them Ford boosters. They're just appreciative a man who had class & dignity, and was a helluva athlete to boot too.

At least Ford knew where the veto pen was.

[LADYAK]

I personally think it is terrible to wait until you are dead to come out with criticism against the administration....he should have been man enough to back his statements up when he was alive. While I think he was a good man - I think it was chicken to do this!!!

[bushfamfan]

Nice parting shot.

[Austin Willard Wright]

I am not claiming that German and Japanese democracy in the 1920s or 1930s were ideal though German democracy would have survived had it not been for the depression. I am simply pointing out that the comparison to Iraq (which has no recent expereince with democracy, a comparatively weak middle class, and no true sense of nationhood) falls flat. You are right about the Japanese constitution but the Japanese would have rejected a return to militarism in any case by 1946. They certainly did in the 1946 election under the pre-war constitution when they embraced the ballot over the bullet by voting in pacifist social democrats. On this point, please note that that Japanese have been completely free since the 1940s to change their Constitution but haven't). Why not? Because it was consistent with public opinion and cultural trends since the beginning.

The fact that emperor was stripped of power was no big deal. He had become pretty much become a symbolic figure since the turn of the century and, prior ot the Meji restoration, had no power at all.

[ohioWfan]

The U.S. gave stability to both nations (McCarthur essentially writing the 1946 Japanese Constitution) and thus both nations embraced the concept that the ballot was better than the bullet in resolving differences.

Exactly.

One of the differences between a conservative and an isolationist is that they (the isolationists) share the view of the left that America does damage when it 'interferes' in the affairs of other countries.

Whereas, we, the conservatives, understand that our system of government is the best on earth, and will improve any country where it is successfully implemented.

We look at history through the prism that America is good, and they look through the prism that America has no right to improve the lot of the citizens of other countries by bringing them freedom.

Fortunately, they don't control the country, because if they did, we WOULD be speaking German now here in the east, and quite possibly Japanese on the west coast.

The only other option to their believing that Americans are bad is that they are self-centered creeps who want the rest of the world to suffer under totalitarianism, or at the very least don't give a rip about anyone except themselves.

Either option is extremely negative, but they are, IMO, the only two we are left with, given their isolationist views.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Fortunately, they don't control the country, because if they did, we WOULD be speaking German now here in the east, and quite possibly Japanese on the west coast.

I address some of these issues in the previous post but please note that nobody, but nobody, of any credibility considered it even a distant possiblity that Germany and Japan would successfully invade and occupy the continental United States. This was especially true after the military build-up began in 1939, a build up supported by leading "isolationists" such as Robert Taft. FDR's decision to confront Japan and Germany was based on other considerations. If you have evidence to the contrary, I'd be interested in seeing it....because you could write a block buster revisionist book that would sell like hotcakes.

[freedom moose]

Why is this news? Has President Gerald Ford suddenly become super relevant to the AP?

[jonrick46]

If President Ford thought we should have used harsher sanctions rather than take out the Hussein regime, I would see it as a product of the bad information that has been generated by the press. The press has created a false picture of the War on Terrorism to use as a hammer against the Bush Administration. Ford as president, knew what it was like to be hounded by the press for every little slip up. He knew that the press would, like vulchers, do every thing they could to take down the Bush Administration. Ford thought that it would be better to play it safe and go the diplomatic route in Iraq.

President Bush is a different man than President Ford. President Bush is a hero because he has the courage to make the right decision with Iraq. He did it knowing the political sacrifice he would have to endure because of the Commie press in America.

[dfwgator]

Words of wisdom from the guy who couldn't beat Carter.

And from the guy who didn't think the Soviets dominated Poland.

Ford was a good man. But he was wrong on a lot of things.

[wideawake]

They're just appreciative a man who had class & dignity

Groveling to the Soviets isn't dignified. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

[wideawake]

At least Ford knew where the veto pen was.

A GOP President serving at a time when the House and Senate are both solidly Democrat will naturally have no qualms in using his veto pen - it bolsters his support among the GOP delegation in the House and Senate.

A GOP President serving for six years with a GOP majority House and Senate does no good going to war with his own party by vetoing legislation passed by the GOP delegation.

Think before you speak.

[wideawake]

Good summation.

[phillyfanatic]

Ford , a fine human being, but not a very good international relations expert or national security expert. I was glad to see his Evangelist Son at his bedside to give him 'last rites.' Ford was honorable but like Bob Michel, could not see that the GOP had to stand for something other than the Democrat Party!!