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Quote of the Day

Jill

George W. Bush:

“I made a decision to lead,” he said, “One, it makes you unpopular; two, it makes people accuse you of unilateral arrogance, and that may be true. But the fundamental question is, is the world better off as a result of your leadership?”

Is there any possible way that anyone, anywhere could answer “yes” to that question?

Quote-of-the-day runner-up: What he’ll do once he leaves office.

“I’ll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol’ coffers.”

Brilliant.

Oh, also? He’s a dirty liar.

Mr. Bush acknowledged one major failing of the early occupation of Iraq when he said of disbanding the Saddam Hussein-era military, “The policy was to keep the army intact; didn’t happen.”

But when Mr. Draper pointed out that Mr. Bush’s former Iraq administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, had gone ahead and forced the army’s dissolution and then asked Mr. Bush how he reacted to that, Mr. Bush said, “Yeah, I can’t remember, I’m sure I said, ‘This is the policy, what happened?’ ” But, he added, “Again, Hadley’s got notes on all of this stuff,” referring to Stephen J. Hadley, his national security adviser.

Except…

A previously undisclosed exchange of letters shows that President Bush was told in advance by his top Iraq envoy in May 2003 of a plan to “dissolve Saddam’s military and intelligence structures,” a plan that the envoy, L. Paul Bremer, said referred to dismantling the Iraqi Army.

So maybe he isn’t a liar, exactly. He just… can’t remember. Perhaps he’s taking some lessons from Alberto “I Don’t Recall” Gonzales.

14 thoughts on Quote of the Day

  2. I think you may have read this incorrectly. I am one of the few non-democrats who believes Bush to be actually not merely dumb but shockingly unprincipled. (I also think most writers here are dumb and shockingly unprincipled, but that’s another story.) But my take on the NYT article was that Bush actually didn’t quite understand what he was signing off to. an example of what happens when people subscribe to the “Bush is Secretly Smart in Ways We Can’t See” i.e. lack of mastery of facts or inability to articulate ideas don’t mean Bush is dumb: you get a Decider who, ultimately, is unable to make intelligent decisions on matters of policy.

  3. The best thing Bush could do when he leaves office is to experience the consequences of his actions first-hand. Since he never completed his National Guard committment, let him serve out his term by serving as a ground soldier in Iraq. I realize he’s 62, but several Guardies in their 50s have been sent to Iraq. He’s in pretty good shape for his age, so send him back to Basic Training, then to Baghdad.

  4. Is there any possible way that anyone, anywhere could answer “yes” to that question?

    There’s a very small group of people who can say yes to that question–they’re the people Matt Taibbi describes in his latest Rolling Stone piece, the ones who have looted the treasury during the course of the Iraq fiasco. They’re people like the heads of Custer Battles or Halliburton or Bechtel or KBR–especially KBR.

    But outside those limited few who have made out like bandits, no–no one else can answer that question affirmatively.

  5. I have read about this story not here but also in German and I still don’t really get it. So no one really knew what Bremer was doing and he didn’t get fired for that? Or they knew what he was doing and now the President just can’t remember what happened but someone must have approved it anyway because else he wouldn’t have signed it? Or maybe he just signed everything randomly?

    Oh, my head hurts.

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  8. Through decades of observing politicians, I can say that every time you think they can’t be as dumb as they act…they are.

    Same thing goes for bosses.

  10. So no one really knew what Bremer was doing and he didn’t get fired for that?

    nope, he got the medal of freedom.

    (bush’s universe is like bizarro world: down is up, incompetency is rewarded, etc.)

  13. nope, he got the medal of freedom

    Later, I looked up Bremer on Wikipedia and saw that. They gave it to him before his job was finished, a time, I thought that doesn’t really justify such an honor. It’s like being called a Doctor before your thesis is finished…

  14. They gave it to him before his job was finished

    he was going to get it regardless of the outcome – he’s an old friend from way back. and what’s the fun of being president if you can’t give your friends cool awards?

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