George W. Bush gave an interview to The Politico and Yahoo News on Tuesday, the result of which is a must-read study of obtuseness. Among other gems, the president insisted that a withdrawal from Iraq would lead to another terrorist attack against the U.S. He also revealed that in order to honor the soldiers his foreign policy has killed or maimed, he has given up golf.


The Politico:

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights.

“I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life,” he said. “I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, ‘It’s just not worth it anymore to do.’ “

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