We've heard some of the advance leaks about (1) Bush saying his biggest mistake was in reducing the troop level in Iraq too soon; (2) Cheney offering to be replaced on the 2004 ticket, which Bush decided against; and (3) acknowledging that he personally authorized waterboarding and would do it again "to save lives"; (4) his ending the book characterizing his current status as the guy who walks his dog Barney "with a plastic bag on my hand, picking up that which I had been dodging for the past eight years."
While acknowledging some interest for its glimpses of personalities involved and the confirmation of much of what we have known about Bush from other writers like Bob Woodward, the reviewer focuses more on what Bush skips over without discussing: cherry picking intelligence, aggrandized executive power, shortchanging the war in Afghanistan in order to invade Iraq, the problems at Guantanimo, the role of his deregulatory free market policies in the financial crisis, and the infighting within his own administration. He repeatedly refers to being "blindsided" about major developments, as though he weren't in charge but merely at the mercy of his minions.
The most quotable paragraph from the review is this:
Despite the eagerness of Mr. Bush to portray himself as a forward-leaning, resolute leader, this volume sometimes has the effect of showing the former president as both oddly passive and strangely cavalier.He says he left office satisfied that "I had always done what I believed was right." Many of his friends and supporters will think that was good enough.
I don't. The country would have been so much better off if the president had been someone whose ideas of what is right are influenced by intelligence, knowledge of history and culture and economics, curiosity about all aspects of policy decisions, and the capacity for reflective thinking. The country suffered greatly from this little man's lack of all of those qualities.
Ralph
The Doonesbury political cartoon has a series going of a feckless reporter interviewing an equally feckless Bush about his book:
ReplyDeleteBush: The surge was my toughest decision -- and it worked. But people don't really give me credit. I deserve much more credit.
Reporter: Yes, Sir. But wouldn't that be like praising an arsonist for bringing his own fire under control?
Bush: What's THAT supposed to mean?
Reporter: I have no idea. Someone put it on my question sheet.
He says he left office satisfied that "I had always done what I believed was right."
ReplyDeleteThe best definition of a Narcissist is someone who believes his own thoughts. With Bush, if he thought it, he thought it was right. So his satisfaction was assured. It's amazing how detached we are from him - "decathected" comes to mind. Who cares what he thought? One of the reasons for this week's election results is that the Republicans successfully pretended that he never existed.
He reports a A "sickening feeling" about Iraq
Bush tells Matt Lauer that he "was a dissenting voice on Iraq" who gave "diplomacy every chance to work." That's simply a lie. Every piece of evidence - the Downing Street Memos, the Testimony in the Chilcot Inquiry, the meetings with Blair. It's just simply not even close to the truth [unless, of course, he doesn't know what the word diplomacy means]...
I'm guessing his definition of diplomacy goes something like this:
ReplyDeleteIt's holding off your decision until the other guy comes around to your position -- or until you decide that isn't going to happen.
That seems to be the same definition Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are using now about Obama.