George Bush's Memoirs

~~immense~~ · 09-11-2010, 01:34 AM

It is published in the US tomorrow but The Guardian obtained a copy before any other media outlet. Goes on about how he planned military action on Syria and Iran.

In the memoirs Bush:

• Describes Tony Blair as his closest foreign ally.

• Admits mistakes over Iraq, but regards it as the right thing to have done.

• Defends the Guantánamo Bay detention centre and the use of torture, such as waterboarding, to extract information from alleged terrorists, saying that it helped save American lives.

• Accepts he took "too long" to make decisions over the disaster that engulfed New Orleans after it was struck by hurricane Katrina five years ago, killing more than 1,800 people, but says the blame lies with other people.

In a book largely lacking in personal insight, Bush says he is most angry at accusations that he was indifferent to the plight of the victims of Katrina because so many are black. "The suggestion that I was a racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all-time low. I told Laura at the time that it was the worst moment of my presidency. I feel the same way today," Bush writes.

On Iran, some of his advisers argued that destroying "the regime's prized project" of its nuclear facility would help the Iranian opposition, while others worried it would stir up Iranian nationalism against the US.

"Military action would always be on the table, but it would be my last resort," he said. He added that he discussed all the options with Tony Blair, who in his memoirs published earlier this year revealed he leaned towards military action.

Bush also discussed a request from the Israeli prime minister at the time, Ehud Olmert, to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear plant. Bush convened his national security team to discuss an air strike or a covert raid. He says of the latter: "We studied the idea seriously, but the CIA and the military concluded it would be too risky to slip a team into and out of Syria." He said no to a disappointed Olmert. The Israelis then did it themselves in September 2007. Bush's first call after 9/11 was with Blair. "The conversation helped cement the closest friendship I would form with any foreign leader," Bush writes.

Blair is referred to at various points as "Tony", whereas leaders such as the French president, Jacques Chirac, who kept France out of the Iraq war, is referred to simply as "Chirac".

Some of the interesting points taken from the Guardian article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

It is constantly being updated.

**Richie** · 09-11-2010, 01:51 AM

I suppose its better out in the open. Should get loads of hits.

~~immense~~ · 09-11-2010, 01:56 AM

I think it's going to open a can of worms on Blair too, who is hardly adored by the public as it is. The old argument that he was Bush's lapdog will come back and this will undoubtedly be used as evidence.