Bush: "I Was Unprepared for War"
Bush discusses high and lows of term in candid "exit interview" with ABC
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President Bush was frank but optimistic in comments about the Iraq war. "I was unprepared for war," he said. Yet he added, "I believe we can win."
President George W. Bush confessed he was "unprepared for war" and that the lowest point of his presidency was his administration's mistake on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
"The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq," the outgoing Commander-in-Chief said in an interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson broadcast Monday night.
The outgoing President nonetheless believes that America will triumph in that war. "I believe we can win," he said. "I'm going to do what it takes to win in Iraq."
Bush made the candid comments in an "exit interview" with Gibson. In the interview, Bush reflected on his time in the Oval Office and looked toward his life post-presidency. He also weighed in on Barack Obama's victory after he ran a campaign that heavily criticized Bush's policies. "I think [the election] was a repudiation of Republicans," Bush said. "And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me."
For all his acknowledged failings as President, Bush joked that he is indifferent to the judgment of history. "I'll be frank with you. I don't spend a lot of time really worrying about short-term history," he said. "I guess I don't worry about long-term history, either, since I'm not going to be around to read it."
Posted Tuesday, Jul 14, 2009 - 5:42 AM EST
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