BUSH CANDOR: DECISIONS HAVE MADE IRAQ MORE UNSTABLE

Drudge Report ^ | January 13, 2007 | Matt Drudge

[West Coast Conservative]

The president concedes that his decisions have led to more instability in Iraq. President Bush made the admission in an exclusive interview with Scott Pelley at Camp David yesterday (12), his first interview since addressing the nation about Iraq. It will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Jan. 14 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

The president says the current sectarian violence in Iraq, is a destabilizing factor that "could lead to attacks here in America" and must be controlled. He defended his decision to invade Iraq in the same way, saying Saddam was competing with Iran to get a nuclear weapon and making the region unstable. But when pressed by Pelley, Bush concedes that conditions in Iraq are much worse now.

Pelley: But wasn't it your administration that created the instability in Iraq? Bush: "Our administration took care of a source of instability in Iraq. Envision a world in which Saddam Hussein was rushing for a nuclear weapon to compete against Iran... He was a significant source of instability. Pelley: It's much more unstable now, Mr. President. Bush: Well, no question, decisions have made things unstable.

"I think history is going to look back and see a lot of ways we could have done things better. No question about it," says Bush.

Toppling Saddam was not a mistake, however. "My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the correct decision in my judgment. We didn't find the weapons we thought we would find or the weapons everybody thought he had. But he was a significant source of instability," Bush tells Pelley. "We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude and I believe most Iraqi's express that."

The execution of Saddam was mishandled, says the president, who saw only parts of it on the Internet because he didn't want to watch the dictator fall through the trap door. "I thought it was discouraging... It's important that that chapter of Iraqi history be closed. [But] They could have handled it a lot better."

[Blue State Insurgent]

Did you see the link vigilante2 just posted?

Here is the article:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htintel/articles/20060623.aspx

Read it if whatever what you have been drinking hasn't made you blind already.

[The_Eaglet]

My questions don't have anything to do with troll loitering and everything to do with the thread topic or statements particularly directed toward me.

Your attacks on me are much more conducive to "troll loitering."

That's why you need to be careful.

[TexKat]

He doesn't say "my decisions" and he could very well mean decisions by the Iraqi government or something else.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush acknowledged on Saturday that some of his administration's decisions during the Iraq war had contributed to instability there but he still believed he was right to topple Saddam Hussein.

Insisting it was crucial to U.S. interests to get the sectarian violence in Iraq under control, Bush told CBS in an interview that the strife there was a destabilising force in the Middle East that "could lead to attacks here in America."

Pressed on whether actions by his administration had created further instability in Iraq, Bush said, "Well, no question, decisions have made things unstable."

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1972055&sectionid=5054

[jrooney]

If you come out with an uneducated attack against the president, you have to understand you will get called on it by those of us that support him. If you post like a troll, I WILL CALL YOU ONE.

[TKDietz]

And irrational to boot, but that is the mindset you are up against so you are unlikely to get anywhere in this argument.

[Petronski]

Do you really think President Bush should not apologize for the 3,000 Americans who died in Iraq...

No.

Hell no.

[Kaslin]

Not until sometimes in March of 2001. Due to the Rats trying to steal the election

[The_Eaglet]

If you come out with an uneducated attack against the president, you have to understand you will get called on it by those of us that support him. If you post like a troll, I WILL CALL YOU ONE.

That's another interesting hypothetical situation. I happen to agree with the President that Iraq is more unstable. Does that qualify as "an uneducated attack against the president" ?

[woofie]

I consider myself a hair trigger Freeper but Im moving kind of slow

[AliVeritas]

Check it out:
http://www.strata-sphere.com/blog/

[jrooney]

Why should President Bush apologize for the 3000 troops that have died fighting terrorists and insurgents, while liberating the people of Iraq? Why? You said he should, so why?

[defenderSD]

Another idea to keep in mind is that some of the best evidence for Saddam's WMD programs probably came from informants and through the powerful electronic surveillance capabilities of the NSA. We can't disclose publicly evidence from informants, because of course that would put their lives in danger and make it very difficult to recruit informants in other countries in the future. We also cannot disclose most of the information gathered by the NSA, because that would allow Saddam's regime to deduce some of the capabilities of the NSA, i.e., what kind of communications we are able to intercept. If they figured out some of these capabilities, they could tell the whole world and then rogue regimes like Iran would start to take counter-measures to make it more difficult to do electronic surveillance on them. So the NSA could lose the effectiveness of some of it's methods, and in this era of nuclear weapons, losing some of those methods could be disastrous some day.

Withholding sensitive intelligence from the public is called "protecting sources and methods." It made Bush's job much more difficult but that's all part of the burden of the Presidency.

[The_Eaglet]

And irrational to boot, but that is the mindset you are up against so you are unlikely to get anywhere in this argument.

It is indeed an irrational mindset.

[The_Eaglet]

I said Iraq is more unstable now, in agreement with the President.

[Earthdweller]

"...he's been unable to change how the administration handles its critics."

The policy seems to be that everyone has a right to their own say and if given enough rope and time they will hang themselves in the court of public opinion.

It's quite frustrating to most of us observers. In the old days of the Kings the foolish naives would have just been silenced. LOL

[jrooney]

I am calling you out what you said earlier, which caught my ire. You posted it, I am calling you on it. Why should he apologize for the troops that have died in Iraq fighting terrorists and insurgents? Why?

[billbears]

VP Cheney said on TV that Saddam had restarted his nuclear weapons program, and Cheney knows what he's talking about.

And we know this why again? Oh that's because he's from the 'right' party. Sorry no sale

We have not talked much about this program since the invasion, probably because all the hard evidence of lab equipment and partially enriched unranium was removed by Russia before the invasion to keep it away from Syria and Iran. Any useful equipment left behind probably went to Syria before the invasion.

Sounds like you've been reading too much of Crazy Joe over at WND as well. We're not just talking about a nuclear program (which has been discounted by more than one credible source). If you remember a rather detailed list was given of what had not been accounted for. We were shown cartoons of tractor trailer trucks and the President gave a rather long list. The first excuse was that it was in underground garages. When those weren't found, the excuse balloon of Syria was let out to see how it would fly. Again, no evidence, no sale. Even Fox dropped it after awhile because no one was buying. The latest rants from Hannity, and other party talking heads, is democracy. Why? If the 'evidence' were so damning surely it would have been kept up. The reason it wasn't because it was getting rather silly 'searching' for something that wasn't there and probably hadn't been for over a decade

[The_Eaglet]

Please quote verbatim what I posted, and I will answer your question.

[defenderSD]

I don't think Bush's statement about instability is a big deal. It's doesn't take a foreign policy expert to figure out that Baghdad is more violent and unstable than it was under Saddam's police state. Everybody knows that Baghdad has been made less stable overall in the short run, but we've also eliminated systematic mass murder throughout Iraq by Saddam's regime. The big issue is how stable and democratic Iraq will be in the long run, and long-term stabilization is the goal of this troop surge.

[jonrick46]

"We didn't find the weapons we thought we would find or the weapons everybody thought he had."

I wish President Bush would give us a clue as to what happened to the WMDs that Saddam was racing with the Iranians to get.