Bush’s Lame Defense of Iraq War Decisions Is Outrageous

Now that history has shown us how monumentally terrible the idea of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq turned out to be, the president who lied to get us into the quagmire says he’s “comfortable” with the decisions he made that led us there.

Suggesting his only regrets about his eight years in office center on Social Security and immigration reform, George W. Bush told The Dallas Morning News over the weekend in a rare interview that “I’m comfortable with what I did.”

“I’m confident the decisions were made the right way,” he explained, adding this awful justification: “It’s easy to forget what life was like when the decision was made.”

The Dallas Morning News:

Asked what he might have done differently — with the benefit of hindsight — Bush listed the same regrets he mentioned upon leaving the White House: the failure to overhaul Social Security and immigration policy.

…He likewise reiterated his support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying that he’s “confident the decisions were made the right way.”

Near the Iraq war’s 10th anniversary — as many stepped forward to revisit their criticism of the conflict — Bush made no mention of weapons of mass destruction, “enhanced interrogation techniques” or other controversies.

But he reflected on the “realities of the situation 10 years ago”: that the Iraq invasion had bipartisan support and that seeking regime change in Iraq had also been the policy under Clinton.

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Bush’s comments come just weeks after dying Iraq War veteran Tomas Young penned a scathing and emotional open letter to the former president and his vice president, Dick Cheney, that was posted on Truthdig on the 10th anniversary of the invasion.

“My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live,” Young wrote in blasting the pair. “I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.”

“Beg for forgiveness” — or at the very least apologize — would have been a far more appropriate response than the pathetic excuses Bush offered in defense of his moves that led to war. Then again, it’s not like he has strength of character anyway.

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.