Bush On Iraq War: "I Don't Care If It Created More Enemies"

NBC News' Richard Engel, who in April was promoted to chief foreign correspondent, has written a book, released today, about the years he spent reporting in Iraq. The book is titled War Journal: My Five Years In Iraq, and it contains an explosive interview with President Bush. The president makes several controversial, some might say shocking, statements (from Muckraked):

"'This is the great war of our times. It is going to take forty years,'" [Bush told Engel]. "Bush said in forty years the world would know if the war on terrorism, and conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, had reduced extremism, helped moderates, and promoted democracy."

- Bush admits to Engel that going to war was a decision based on his personal instinct and not on any long-range strategy for the Mideast:

"I know people are saying we should have left things the way they were, but I changed after 9/11. I had to act. I don't care if it created more enemies. I had to act."

Read more from Bush's interview with Engel here.

Comments

[xxnounxx]

He does not care if he created more enemies,he trusted his instincts,mmm well fair enough,who can balmea mad man,,the people i balme are the americans who put their trust in someone who has chemical imbalance,resulting from his alcoholism..which medically has been proven alcohol couses brain damage.
well bush you have not created more enemies for yourself,as no one cares for you,its the american people who are the victims of your unbalanced brains cells,that are hated around the world now.

hopefully god willing the whole world want to see you and your gand ,rmsfeild,cheney and B'LIAR (tony blair ( who so insultingly has been made the middle-east peace ambassedor), sitting in the docks with your heads bowed in shame,at the international courts for human rights in the hague...charge...( war criminals).
good luck cowboy

[sedum]

xxnounxx

Do you have an English translation for this?

[paulbikes]

Cheny and Bush are like two spoiled little brats with the whole world and countless innocent lives to play with.

Why haven't we impeached them? at least there is a wide-spread calling to try them for war crimes etc.

[Boboday555]

"I don't care"
George W. AWOL

"So"
Dick WAR DEFERMENTS Cheney

Do these two remind anyone else of spoiled little children?

[Liam]

Just one more lie. Anyone remember reason #624 for the Iraq war: To keep America safe from terrorists?

I really dislike proving a point of Bill O'Reilly's, but at this point, I think I can fairly say I actively, passionately HATE this President, or at least what he stands for and what he's done to my country.

Liam.

[xxnounxx]

unfortunately my dear,the war on terrorism will never be a successs,what bush has doen is provoke the actual terrorist who are not afraid of death,to create more terrorrism and misery around the world.

And let always remember who created BINLADIN,SADDAM,AND THE TERRORIST GROUP IN PAKISTAN THAT BUSH IS financing to attack iran from the borders,like balushistan,soon those terrorist will turn around and start attacking their finanaciers..you see the problem so much is banned from the media in america,they keep yor eyes closed from the truth,thank god for british and european and middle eastern media,for letting s see the truh.
good luck america,i hope your next leader can be more wiser,and more diplomatic,and learn not to insult our cultures and way of life,and treat the palestinians equally as it treats their adopted child isreal.

becouse no matter what anyone says the root of the whole middle-east conflict is for the couse of palestine.when thats sorted then terrorism will not exist anymore.
im talking on behalf of the middle east.

i dont know ow other terrorism will be sorted out,terrorism that have nothing to do with the middle east,like the basque in spain,the tamil tigers,the ones in burma,the terrorism in america.

[Liam]

That was kind of my point.

All along when they'd claim they were "keeping us safer" I've been saying they were creating a new generation of extremists who would grow to hate and attack us.

So the only thing new here is that not only were they lying to us, they KNEW they were lying to us, and simply didn't give a rat's patootie.

If we were serious about fighting terrorism in general and al qaeda in specific, we'd have stayed in Afghanistan and possibly followed that up in Pakistan. Stayed where the people who actually attacked us were until we'd rooted them out, all the while probably enjoying the support of most of the free world.

Instead, we pissed away that support on this fools errand war about which almost nothing we've been told was true, only now we don't merely believe that, we're getting proof.

Thus my comment about hatred.

Liam.

[Lexie]

Richard Engel is my idea of an real journalist and he is very courageous. I saw him at the beginning of the Iraq war on ABC -- he was a contractor for them (they were fools not to snap him up). When the contract was over, I read that NBC offered him a permanent job.

[Lexie]

Well, I knew that. He is contemptuous of the Constitution, the rule of law, the troops, the American people, and the rest of the world.

[CheneysACoward]

"The great war of our times"...Great? Very strange how those who never have been in a war can use such a word .

[masterself]

who in the hell would vote Mccain over Obama, and how did
Hillary get over 290 super delegate, who are the superdelegate
that voted for her knowing she couldn't win, we need to kick them
out ot office also.

[LeftLeanWing]

Most of those SuperDelegate committed before the 1st primary vote was even cast.

[Detestable]

"Great war or Greatest war?"
--Colbert

[PhantomAviator]

..

That says it all:

"I don't care."

.

[JDHART]

Bush tries and will continue to try to push this History Will Tell theory. It's such bullshit. Unless he has a time machine, history has already spoken. He can't undo the damage done, no matter how he spins it. And I'm not waiting for history to make up my mind, George W. Bush's presidency is a diaster and he's the worst president this country has ever seen. Why hasn't he been impeached?????

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

He's probably sincere in that part, counting on his neocon enablers to be the writers of history.

He who controls the past is doomed to repeat it...

[arkgrfx61]

This is all about his legacy ....god that is hard to swallow.
He has let over 4000 young soldiers die, more and more soldiers coming home w/ PTSD and NOT being treated properly, countless Iraqi's are dead...all so this bumbling fool's legacy can live on as being a great war president.
And his instinct??? This man has about as much instinct as a fly. No plan, just instinct. It really is quite infuriating.
After reading this article...I feel like i need a shower just to take the slime off.

[Cynth]

Another quote from the interview:

“The problem is Olmert. This is a man who came to power on a promise that he was going to unilaterally define a Palestinian state. You can’t pressure democracies.”

Hmmm...but you can lie to them. And you can try to force their creation in spite of all indications that it would be a disaster.

[ibivi]

The disconnect of what he says and what he does is obvious to anyone except him. What time-warp does he live in? Does he even have a brain? It is appalling.

[ExPatriot70]

Why does this not surprise me at all. You got what you deserved for voting for him, I hope you do better this time around. By the way I did not vote for him either time

[max]

oh, i suppose your an elitist that only votes for people that can form a complete sentence.

[RichDavid]

Rise up America the rain and darkness is almost gone....We will once again be what the World loved about America.

[Manx]

Bush: "I don't care if the Iraq war created more enemies."

I'll be so glad when we get an adult in the White House.

[mari2JJ]

Yes, he could have ended the sentence with "care" You know, as in "I don't CARE". In which case, I would have quickly posted a totally true statement, ie "He does not care- - - about anything!.

[egal]

He cares about his perceived legacy. He's just too much of a doofus to realize he'll probably go down with some other "evil" leaders in history.

But he has to care about politics, little as he appears to understand it, or else what's the rationale even in his own mind for starting a war that would define his presidency when there was little other probable reason for it and none viable?

[ricchase]

Even a moron could see the many benefits of accepting the outpouring of support after 9/11. The fact he and Cheney went against the world and the American people in such stark fashion indicates that the cancer was there long before.