Shut the fuck up George!

[Equipoise]

Bush: ‘I was unprepared for war’

Five years after he declared victory in Iraq on the US aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, President George W. Bush says he was “unprepared” for a war in Iraq that has gone on to claim thousands of American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

“I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess,” Bush tells ABC’s Charlie Gibson in an interview to be broadcast tonight, and said he didn’t know if he’d have gone to war if he didn’t think there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

“That is a do-over that I can’t do,” Bush said.

He said incorrect intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s arsenal was the “biggest regret of all the presidency.”

“I think I was unprepared for war,” Bush remarked. “In other words, I didn’t campaign and say, ‘Please vote for me, I’ll be able to handle an attack,’” he said. “In other words, I didn’t anticipate war. Presidents – one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.”

9/11 was unexpected but could possibly have been prevented if your lousy SoS had listened to Richard Clarke instead of getting him fired, and had read her fucking bulletins (“bin Laden determined to strike in US”). Millions of people around the world tried to get you to think twice about attacking Iraq and take a second look at the “evidence” of WMDs, but your insularity kept you from true leadership.

But also he tried to spread the blame – and his credulity – for bad intelligence on others.

“A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein,” Bush said. “It wasn’t just people in my administration. A lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington, D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence.”

“I listened to a lot of voices, but ultimately, I listened to this voice: I’m not going to let your son die in vain,” he said. “I believe we can win. I’m going to do what it takes to win in Iraq.”

The members of Congress and other world leaders were looking at the bogus intelligence that YOU (and fucking Colin Powell) showed them! They all looked to YOU and trusted that YOU would be smart enough to weigh the true intelligence and look at all the angles before you forgot about Afghanistan, forgot about bin Laden, and acted like a drunk cowboy stumbling off to avenge Poppa.

In the interview, Bush also defended his administration’s response to a now paralyzing economic crisis spurned by the failure of the US credit markets.

“When you have the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Fed say, ‘If we don’t act boldly, we could be in a depression greater than the Great Depression,’ that’s an ‘uh-oh’ moment,” he said

“Uh oh”? Fuck you!
Bush Administration Weakened Lending Rules Before Crash

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

“Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories,” California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying _ along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK _ regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

…

You can’t change your legacy with a bunch of last-minute boo hoo, so sorry, damns. You’re hated or at least disliked by everyone who isn’t a right-wing loonball, and history will judge you harshly. Asshole.

[Merijeek]

@Equipoise

You can’t change your legacy with a bunch of last-minute boo hoo, so sorry, damns. You’re hated or at least disliked by everyone who isn’t a right-wing loonball, and history will judge you harshly. Asshole.

But he got re-elected, and therefore, ergo, ex post facto, habaeus corpus, carpe diem, he was a success.

-Joe

[Equipoise]

You forgot Mandate!

[Marley23]

@Equipoise

9/11 was unexpected but could possibly have been prevented if your lousy SoS had listened to Richard Clarke instead of getting him fired, and had read her fucking bulletins (“bin Laden determined to strike in US”).

Minor correction that perhaps makes it even more inexcusable: she wasn’t the secretary of state at the time. She was the national security adviser.

[Equipoise]

Oh geez, you’re right!

[TWDuke]

“In other words, I didn’t campaign and say, ‘Please vote for me, I’ll be able to handle an attack.’”

Sorry, I thought “'Please vote for me” kind of implied “I’ll be able to handle an attack.” Exactly what position did he think he was running for?

[Giraffe]

@TWDuke

Sorry, I thought “'Please vote for me” kind of implied “I’ll be able to handle an attack.” Exactly what position did he think he was running for?

Secretary of Having a Beer With?

[Equipoise]

Cowboy In Chief

[Baldwin]

Shut the fuck up George!

Good title. I’d add, and be happy you’re not hanging from a fucking streetlight.

[Equipoise]

You’re right, he’s not Randall Flagg. There is that.

[Dangerosa]

Sometimes, I ALMOST feel sorry for him. Its like your bachelor brother in law deciding “no problem, I can watch your toddler triplets for the weekend” and then being totally unprepared for emergency room trips and blaming the neighbor for having that swingset anyway.

[Equipoise]

@Baldwin

Shut the fuck up George!

Good title. I’d add, and be happy you’re not hanging from a fucking streetlight.

I think I misunderstood you. I thought you were saying that I should be glad I’m not hanging from a streetlight for being insolent to the president, but now I read it as HE should be glad he’s not hanging from a streetlamp because he’s a fucking lying, scumbag murderer.

ETA: Good one Dangerosa!

[BrainGlutton]

He seems to have been unprepared for war and everything else. Sometimes I wonder just what W thought he was getting into when he ran.

But I never wonder that about Cheney.

[BrainGlutton]

It’s like that scene from Animal House:

HOOVER: Come on, Otter! You’re the Pledge Chairman! You have to come down and meet the pledges!

OTTER: Hey, come on, man, you know I can’t handle responsibility!

HOOVER: Then why did you run for the job?!

OTTER: I forget.

[Boyo_Jim]

“I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess,” Bush tells ABC’s Charlie Gibson in an interview to be broadcast tonight, and said he didn’t know if he’d have gone to war if he didn’t think there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

“That is a do-over that I can’t do,” Bush said.

He said incorrect intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s arsenal was the “biggest regret of all the presidency.”

“I think I was unprepared for war,” Bush remarked. “In other words, I didn’t campaign and say, ‘Please vote for me, I’ll be able to handle an attack,’” he said. “In other words, I didn’t anticipate war. Presidents – one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.”

Is he STILL fucking hallucinating that Iraq attacked us? Is he STILL claiming he went to war with Iraq due the attack on 9/11?

Now I’m gonna have to listen to the fucking interview – perhaps thet context will make clear that’s not what he meant. I hope so. But damn, I HATE listening to the guy – I haven’t been able to listen to his speeches for years. His idiocy just burns through, and it actually feels kinda painful.

[Starving_Artist]

@Equipoise

[
9/11 was unexpected but could possibly have been prevented if your lousy SoS had listened to Richard Clarke instead of getting him fired…

It almost certainly would have been prevented had Bill Clinton, Richard Clarke, et. al killed Bin Laden when they had the opportunity to do so.

This from terrorist analyst Michael Scheuer on CBS’ Early Show:

“The former president seems to be able to deny facts with impugnity. Bin Laden is alive today because Mr. Clinton, Mr. Sandy Berger, and Mr. Richard Clarke refused to kill him,” he said.

Link

Remember when Bill Clinton and his team had Bin Laden practically served up on a platter by the Sudanese government but declined?

Link (From the horse’s mouth. This guy actively participated in the negotiations and was repeatedly rebuffed by the Clinton administration.)

Link

Link

Have you blamed Clinton in the same way you’re now blaming Bush?

[BrainGlutton]

@Boyo_Jim

Is he STILL fucking hallucinating that Iraq attacked us? Is he STILL claiming he went to war with Iraq due the attack on 9/11?

Well, America was attacked . . . and, well . . . well, we have to make allowances for slow-witted MBAs.

[Equipoise]

@Starving_Artist

Have you blamed Clinton in the same way you’re now blaming Bush?

Sorry, I don’t click links provided by right wing loonballs. In any case, even if you’re right, and being a right wing loonball I’d doubt you’re right about anything other than HTR, 9/11 happened on Bush’s watch, and it was HIS people who disregarded the warnings.

[Starving_Artist]

And people wonder why I say cites prove nothing. :rolleyes:

[mhendo]

@Starving_Artist

Have you blamed Clinton in the same way you’re now blaming Bush?

Why should we?

Bush and his supporters, including people like you, have been constantly yammering over the past 7 years that “9/11 changed everything.” Why, then, should we hold Clinton to the same level of responsibility regarding Bin Laden as we do Bush?

If 9/11 was indeed the massive watershed moment that Bush and his supporters have repeatedly claimed, then surely the effort to find and kill Bin Laden in the period after 9/11 should be weighed as more important than the period before.

@Starving_Artist

Link (From the horse’s mouth. This guy actively participated in the negotiations and was repeatedly rebuffed by the Clinton administration.)

Really?

From that link:

The Sudanese offered to arrest Bin Laden and extradite him to Saudi Arabia or, barring that, to “baby-sit” him–monitoring all his activities and associates.

Yet according to Staff Statement No. 5, part of the 9/11 Commission Report:

These contacts with Sudan, which went on for years, have become a source of controversy. Former Sudanese officials claim that Sudan offered to expel Bin Ladin to the United States. Clinton administration officials deny ever receiving such an offer. We have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim.

Link (pdf)