"Decision Points": 8 most interesting revelations
What you should know about "Decision Points"
Bush writes in "Decision Points" that he considered firing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld – but couldn't find a replacement.
George W. Bush's memoir "Decision Points" isn't even officially available for sale until tomorrow. But that hasn't stopped quite a few readers from getting hold of copies. And of course now that the former president is starting to make the rounds of the talk shows, more and more of what's contained in his book has become common knowledge.
What are the most interesting revelations so far? I've been most intrigued by the following eight glimpses into the mind of Bush 43:
1. The former president does acknowledge some mistakes. On Katrina: “As leader of the federal government, I should have recognized the deficiencies sooner and intervened faster.” On Iraq: “[W]e did not respond more quickly or aggressively when the security situation started to deteriorate after Saddam’s regime fell.” Also: “[C]utting troop levels too quickly was the most important failure of execution in the war.” He also admits to having been "blindsided" a number of times during his presidency. On Abu Ghraib: "I had no idea how graphic or grotesque the photos [of abuse in the prison] would be.” On the 2008 financial crisis: "I assumed any major credit troubles would have been flagged by the regulators or rating agencies.”
2. Bush says that he had “planned to make a change at Defense as part of a new national security team” in 2006, but could not find a replacement for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. (It was finally an old school friend serving as a presidential adviser who recommended Robert M. Gates as a replacement.)
3. Bush says that he considered dropping Vice President Dick Cheney from the ticket in 2004 (perhaps replacing him with then-Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee). It was a suggestion made by Cheney himself, that Bush eventually rejected.
4. Bush's mother, Barbara, once showed him the fetus in a jar after she suffered a devastating miscarriage – an event which later helped Bush to solidify his pro-life stance on abortion.
5. Bush has no regrets about the use of "waterboarding" by American interrogators."We only used the technique on three people," he says. "We gained valuable information to protect the country, and it was the right thing to do, as far as I'm concerned."
6. Cheney was so angry about Bush's refusal to grant a full pardon to former White House staffer Scooter Libby that Bush worried for a time that it had destroyed their relationship.
7. Bush says that the most painful moment of his presidency occurred when Kanye West – upset by what he perceived as the White House's failure to act quickly to aid the victims of hurricane Katrina – said on an NBC telethon that Bush “doesn’t care about black people.”
8. When John McCain announced in 2008 that he was suspending his presidential campaign to attend a White House meeting on rescuing the economy it came as a complete surprise to Bush. He hadn’t yet agreed to convene any such meeting.
Bush's 14 Decision Points
Despite former President Bush's decision to appear in selected venues of the media circuit to promote his apologia, I still stand by my judgment.
Among President Bush's many bad decisions I would list the following fourteen, in my opinion as a presidential biographer and historian, to have been his most egregious, both in getting to the White House, and then as Caesar of the United States:
1. Bush's decision in 1999 to leave the Texas governor's mansion and pursue the U.S. presidency -- a post he knew, in his heart of hearts, he did not have the intellect, qualifications, or qualities of character to occupy successfully. Even his own wife begged him not to do it.
2. Bush's use of Karl Rove and the "dirty tricks brigade" to destroy his Republican rival, Senator McCain in the 2000 primaries -- just as he had, together with Lee Atwater, destroyed Governor Mike Dukakis' bid for the presidency on behalf of his father, twelve years before.
3. Bush's decision to take Dick Cheney as his vice presidential nominee -- an ambitious apparatchik who had, in running the selection process for the VP position, damned all other contenders.
4. Bush's decision to abandon peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and concentrate on war in the Middle East, instead. ("A show of strength by one side can really clarify things.")
5. Bush's decision to make Karl Rove his Presidential Adviser, with no less than four Political Offices on the second floor of the White House -- further polarizing the country.
6. Bush's decision to demote his inherited Counterterrorism Czar, Richard Clarke, and rely on his inexperienced National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, in the months before 9/11, despite more and more evidence pointing to an imminent attack on the U.S.
7. Bush's subsequent decision to call for a general "war on terror," rather than targeted pursuit and destruction of those responsible for 9/11 -- dubbing his response a "crusade."
8. Bush's decision to invade and occupy the whole of Afghanistan -- without seizing the head of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.
9. Bush's decision to then attack and occupy Iraq, without evidence of WMD, and against the advice of his own Secretary of State, General Colin Powell.
10. Bush's decision to disband the Iraqi army and declare "Mission Accomplished" -- leaving the very country that the U.S. had invaded prey to civil, ethnic and religious war.
11. Bush's decision to pursue a policy of secrecy and deceit, and ignore those members of the Justice Department who called for accountability in dealing with suspects -- recklessly sullying America's reputation in the free world to satisfy Vice President Cheney, who became a law unto himself -- unaccountable to anyone.
12. Bush's decision to authorize the virtual assassination of his rival in the 2004 presidential election, the courageous and combat-decorated Senator John Kerry - just as McCain and Dukakis had been trashed by his team, only this time hiding behind "Swift Boats For Truth."
13. Bush's decision to appoint a director of the Arabian Horse Federation as his FEMA chief, his complete failure to federalize the response to the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and his congratulation of Michael Brown for doing "a heck of a job" on the people of New Orleans and Louisiana.
14. Bush's decision to pursue policies of minimal Wall Street regulation, lower tax for the rich, zero interest in the Kyoto protocols, the growing national deficit - and an almost complete absence of preparation or response to the housing crisis, derivatives trading and collapse of Wall Street which came on his watch.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nigel-hamilton/bushs-14-decision-points_b_780505.html
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