He had “a sickening feeling” when he learned there were no mass destruction weapons in Iraq and said “cutting Simulated drowning called waterboarding, he writes that he said, “Damn right.” The interrogations, he adds, “saved lives.”Īt the same time, he offers a more expansive self-critique than he did while in office, expressing regrets for his slow response to Hurricane Katrina, his acquiescence to reducing troops in Iraq after the initial invasionĪnd his decision to nominate his friend and lawyer, Harriet Miers, to the Supreme Court. asked him if they could subject Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Sept. He likewise defends his decision to authorize harsh interrogation techniques on captured terror suspects. Or chemical weapons and “the Iraqi people are better off with a government that answers to them instead of torturing and murdering them.” Bush offers a strong defense of his presidency, declaring that his decision to invade Iraq was the right one because “America is safer without a homicidal dictator pursuing” biological He quit drinking and his handling of the attacks of Sept. Bush chose not to write a traditional birth-to-Oval-Office autobiography, but instead selected 14 major decisions, or clusters of decisions, that shaped his life and presidency, such as the moment Bush says almost nothing about his successor’s actions other than to praise him for sending more troops to Afghanistan. But in keeping with his desire not to complicate Mr. Bush’s circle hopes the public will come to view the former president more sympathetically over time. With his successor, President Obama, now mired in his own troublesĪnd facing voter repudiation, Mr. Bush define his legacy in more favorable terms after leaving office with some of the lowest approval ratings in modern times. His reemergence coincides with the political resurgence of Republicans who were poised to make substantial gains in Tuesday’s Bush’sįirst major foray back into the public arena after nearly two years of public silence. The book and the accompanying media tour will be Mr. Bush discloses the episode in a new book, “Decision Points,” to be published next week by Crown and obtained on Tuesday by the New York Times. So, “at one of our lunches a few weeks later, I asked Dick to stay and he agreed.” Cheney, valued his steadiness and considered him a good friend. I hadn’t picked him to be a political asset I had chosen him to help me do the job. Bush writes, “the more I thought about it, the more strongly I felt Dick should stay. “Accepting Dick’s offer would be one way to demonstrate that I was in charge,”īut in the end, Mr. Cheney really controlled the White House. Vader of the administration.” The president resented the caricature that Mr. “He was seen as dark and heartless – the Darth “While Dick helped with important parts of our base, he had become a lightning rod for criticism from the media and the left,” Mr. Cheney with Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, before opting against the switch. Bush writes, and spent several weeks exploring Cheney, who offered to drop out of the race one day during a private lunch between the two men in mid-2003. Power in the White House and “demonstrate that I was in charge,” the former president says in a new memoir. Bush considered dumping Vice President Dick Cheney from his 2004 reelection ticket to dispel the myths about Mr.
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