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This is the interview with Barbara Bush & former President Bush on March 18, 2003. I don't see where Barbara Bush says what Michael Moore and Frank Rich of the New York Times claims she said. What am I missing?

Family Affair
Bush Parents Say American Support Is Strong for President’s Position on Iraq

C O L L E G E S T A T I O N, Texas, March 18 — While the world remains divided over President Bush's ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, the president's parents say U.S. support is strong and they're touched by the number of American people telling them their son has their support.

"Thank God the American people seem to be supporting him in large numbers, large numbers," said former President George Bush on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

"And so the consequences, he'll figure it out. He'll figure out what's right. But sometimes you've got to do things that people overseas might not think is great, and you know, to some degree, we went through that in Desert Storm, the French at first were reluctant," said the former president.

When George H. W. Bush, the 41st president, decided to overturn Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, he rallied the United Nations, the U.S. people, and Congress before sending in 425,000 American troops.

His son, on the other hand, doesn't have the support of the U.N. Security Council, but the Bushes argue that behind-the-scenes support is strong.

"But a lot of people come up to us and say, 'Our son or our daughter joined the service to support your son, left college and joined.' I'm sort of amazed and touched, and they say, 'We support your son 100 percent. We think he's wonderful,' " Barbara Bush said.

"So of course they're worried and we're worried, but it's — there's a general feeling of sometimes things just have to be done," she said.

‘Support the President Without Reservation’

The president's father says he's seen a lot of support for his son's "rock-solid approach" to the Iraqi situation, and he says the very vocal opposition will disappear when it becomes clear that his son was right all along.

"What I say is I support the president without reservation," the elder Bush said. "But I've been around, I'm old enough now to know that what seems like the crisis of the day might not be tomorrow, and so the president has to do what he thinks is right."

In his prime-time speech Monday, the president compared the Iraqi threat to those behind acts of genocide in the last century. "In this century, when evil men plot chemical, biological and nuclear terror, a policy of appeasement could bring destruction of a kind never before seen on this earth," he said.

"Responding to such enemies only after they have struck first is not self-defense, it is suicide," he said. "The security of the world requires disarming Saddam Hussein now."

A Turn in Public Opinion?

In an ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll conducted after the president set a two-day deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq, 71 percent said they would support war, up a dozen points from a week ago, and 64 percent approved of the president's work on the confrontation with Iraq, the highest number in six months.

Meanwhile, the level of opposition outside of the United States has remained the same. Several world leaders spoke out against the president's ultimatum Monday night. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany said the threat posed by Iraq's dictator does not justify killing innocent people. French President Jacques Chirac said war without the support of the United Nations would undermine future efforts at peaceful disarmament.

Mexican President Vicente Fox says he doesn't believe all diplomatic efforts have been exhausted, but he said his view wouldn't affect U.S.-Mexico relations.

Leaders in Australia and Japan say they support the U.S. position.

Former President Bush says words of opposition from the other side of the political fence are nothing new when it comes to the conflict with Iraq. Although he received a great degree of support from Americans and from leaders around the world during the Gulf War, he says those who opposed his actions then are expressing the same opinions today.

In last week's Sunday issue of the New York Times, former President Jimmy Carter wrote that the United States is nowhere near the point of a justified war with Iraq.

"But now, with our own national security not directly threatened and despite the overwhelming opposition of most people and governments in the world, the United States seems determined to carry out military and diplomatic action that is almost unprecedented in the history of civilized nations," Carter, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize, wrote in his editorial titled "Just War — or a Just War?"

Former President Bush said he wasn't surprised by one word of Carter's article.

"[It's] exactly the same position he had in 1991, exactly, and he wrote members of the Security Council to that effect. This is history repeating itself," he said.

The elder Bushes say they try to stay out of the limelight, except for when it comes to promoting their volunteerism charity fund, the Points of Light Foundation, but it becomes very difficult to stay silent when they're asked questions about their son.

"We keep saying we're not going to do interviews or talk about Iraq," the former president said.

But Barbara Bush says there is a clear distinction between political talk and what they have to say.

"We're not talking about Iraq. We're talking about our son," she said.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/Living/Iraq_GMA030318_BushFamily.html