Bush returns to tell his side of the story

Former President George W. Bush this week broke almost two years of silence on his presidency, conceding in a series of interviews and in his newly released memoir that he “could have done things better,” but insisting he has no regrets about invading Iraq or waterboarding terrorism suspects. In both the interviews and his 481-page book, Decision Points, Bush sought to explain some of his most controversial decisions, including giving the go-ahead to invade Iraq in 2003. He said he’d had no reason to doubt U.S. intelligence reports that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, and said that both America and Iraq are “better off” without Saddam Hussein.

It was a “mistake,” Bush conceded, to hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier after Saddam’s government fell, and he acknowledged that his administration waited too long to take over the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But he denied any responsibility for failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks, despite having received a CIA warning several weeks earlier titled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” Bush said he hadn’t received “any clear intelligence” indicating “they’re gonna fly airplanes into New York buildings.” He took full responsibility for approving the waterboarding of al Qaida leaders, insisting it was legal and had saved lives. In time, Bush said, he believes history will see him as a president “who recognized the central challenge of our time and kept my vow to keep the country safe.”

What the editorials said

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Yes, Bush “wore cowboy boots, slapped people on the back, and called others by nicknames he made up,” said the Manchester, N.H., Union-Leader. But he always had class, and he proves it with this book. Compare his refusal to criticize President Obama with Jimmy Carter’s unseemly “pursuit of relevance and attention” through his attacks on his successors.

Bush’s real legacy, though, is how he eroded America’s principles, said the London Guardian. He’d like to be seen as a noble patriot, but he “profoundly ill-served America” by authorizing torture, setting up secret prisons and an extra-legal gulag at Guantánamo Bay, and abandoning “the rule of law.” The damage he did to America’s image abroad will take a generation to repair.

What the columnists said

Bush sure hasn’t become any more reflective in the past two years, said Jesse Singal in The New Republic. He still admits “to few mistakes,” and refuses to think deeply about anything. After launching two wars that cost tens of thousands of lives and presiding over a global economic meltdown, Bush says “one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency” was when rapper Kanye West accused him of not liking black people. Really?

“The Decider,” as Bush likes to call himself, very obviously “modeled himself on a Western hero,” said Maureen Dowd in The New York Times. “He even walked like a gunslinger,” with his arms cocked aggressively at his sides. But for “a self-proclaimed man of action,” Bush often portrays himself in his memoirs as “strangely passive” during crises. Time and again he’s blindsided by events, including the 9/11 attacks and the publication of grotesque photos from Abu Ghraib prison. In his campaign to redeem his reputation, said former Bush aide Matt Latimer in TheDailyBeast.com, Bush subtly—but quite deliberately—throws fellow Republicans under the bus. “Many of the memoir’s villains” are conservative allies, from Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell to Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, onto whom Bush shifts much of the blame for his administration’s “misjudgments.” It’s always someone else’s fault.

But history will judge Bush’s tenure first and foremost as “a war presidency,” said Daniel Henninger in The Wall Street Journal. In prosecuting two wars, Bush displayed “clarity and commitment,” especially in his unpopular but courageous decision to increase troops levels in Iraq—the “surge.” He left office with both wars still raging, knowing that he’ll be remembered as a good president only if Afghanistan and Iraq emerge as functional, democratic nations. “For everyone’s sake, one should hope that he was a good president.”