Bush: War Boosts The U.S. Economy (VIDEO)

President George W. Bush argued in 2004 that the best way to grow the U.S. economy was by waging war, according to former Argentine Prime Minister Néstor Kirchner.

Kirchner, in a meeting with Bush, suggested that the United States replicate the successful nation-building strategy it implemented at the end of World War II.

"And he stood up from his chair and got angry. He told me, 'A Marshall plan! No! That's a crazy idea from the Democrats. What needs to be done here, and the best way to revitalize the economy is -- the United States has grown based on wars,' he told me. That's what he told me," Kirchner recounted.

Bush added, said Kirchner, that "all the economic growth that the U.S. had had, had been based on the different wars it had waged."

The former Argentine leader, whose wife now heads the country, made the comments in an interview with Oliver Stone for his upcoming documentary "South Of the Border."

The film is co-written by Tariq Ali, a British intellectual, and Mark Weisbrot of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. The film opens in theaters June 25th.

Kirchner held a 50-minute meeting in Monterrey, Mexico with Bush in January, 2004.

The charge startled even Oliver Stone. "War? He said that?" Stone asked Kirchner, who was among a wave of progressive leaders elected in Latin America over the last decade.

"He said that, word for word," Kirchner assured Stone.

Stone followed up: "Is he suggesting that Latin America should go to war?"

No, said Kirchner. "Well, he was talking about the United States, never said South America. That the United States -- that it was a misunderstanding of the Democrats, that all the economic growth that the U.S. had had, had been based on the different wars it had waged."

The Kirchner interview is done through a translator and the subtitles on the screen don't exactly match what Kirchner was saying, but more closely reflect how his comments were being translated at the time. The Huffington Post had three separate native Spanish speakers translate Kirchner's remarks. His comments above are the result of those translations.

If Kirchner is accurately relaying the comments, that would make Bush the highest-ranking public official to state outright that war is and has been good for the American economy.

WATCH:

Comments

[jaborine]

07:14 AM on 06/04/2010

For years now citizens have called for an investigation of Bush/Chaney and their role in starting a war and mistreating prisoners of war. Do we believe these statements that are so harmful to America, or do we conclude we may never know the truth? Does it matter?
Yes, it does matter if we are ever to move on from our past errors towards healing. What is needed now is for an investigation by the Attorney General to begin if he deems it is warranted.

Without his decision to investigate I believe little can be accomplished no matter how loud we scream.
Thankfully, history will judge both administrations. This fact alone might ensure that justice prevails.

[procrustes13]

10:58 PM on 06/03/2010

Bush is very ignorant here. This "the war saved the economy" is based on the World War II experience when massive Keynesian stimulus was implemented whilst arming the country for war. The U.S. before then had a very small military budget and standing army, would raise armies specifically for war. After World War II, much of the large standing army was maintained and this was the birth of the military-industrial complex. Military Keynesianism was thus maintained ever since the end of World War II. The stimulative effects therefore of actual wars is negligible compared to what was achieved with World War II - the war economy never went away.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

09:01 PM on 06/03/2010

Of course, GWB would praise the positive economic effects of a wartime economy, especially since he sent thousands of young men to their deaths in the service of protecting "our" vital petroleum resources. After eight years of his disastrous reign, our economy was in shambles and we are just now becoming able to see some hope for the future...

Too, GWB believes that war is a good deal for himself personally because he did not have to place himself in harm's way forty years ago, choosing, instead, to serve in some Air National Guard unit in Alabama where no one on base at the time can remember him being there at all. He even failed to report for his flight physical and yet had the gall to land on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, crowing about "Mission Accomplished."

I cannot believe that we are still hearing from this total waste of a human being....

[FACTISFACT]

02:45 PM on 05/29/2010

The article very rightly made public the truth about a rotten stinking previous President of US that history will keep on condemning the GOP so long the world exist for his criminal thinking and anti Human Rights Activities that surpasses the record of Genghis Khan, Haulage Khan and all other famous tyrants and lairs that so far held the No.1 position till this drug edict shattered and captured the No. 1 position having his party link with GOP.

Similarly, the Queen and her country have been dishonored equally by the darling friend of this US president an ex- PM and husband (PIMP) of a nude model. Though the article skipped to include the activities of this person but historian will not pardon him or the Queen for heinous role in anti Human Rights activities during his Prime Minister ship.

[breeding]

12:27 PM on 05/29/2010

Part 4, really the last...

So if you wonder why this elitist, liberal, progessive commie holds a real dislike for Republicans and the ignorant people who bought the "born again" crap they fed you during the Reagan years...

That is why. Good night and good luck.

[breeding]

12:24 PM on 05/29/2010

Part 3 of below... last one.

Sure it was good for the country, in this sense, because it was a singular moment in our history. An opportunity we took advantage of. Such opportunities do not come around when you want them, or need them. They come and go.

To think that "What this country needs is a good war!" is SO off the mark it disgusts me. These are people who think that if it worked once, it will work again. Either they are so ignorant as to be criminal, so narrow sighted as to feel just the war-machine needs to be saved to improve the country, or they are merely morally corrupt as to feel no shame in perpetrating this lie to a public who knows no better while profiting in power and greed.

[breeding]

12:23 PM on 05/29/2010

Part 2 of below.

The war, a World War, demanded the nation respond. People now had a purpose where they had none. Men with no jobs suddenly had one. Young people out of school with no future now had a calling. Women of all ages now could do factory work - HAD to since their men folk were no longer at home - this alone changed women forever as they realized they could do the jobs that men could. The country built a huge manufacturing infrastructure it never had and would later greatly benefit from. Soldiers returning home were given the GI bill, sent to college, became more employable. War factories and technologies where converted to peacetime production at a cost much less than what it would take to build from scratch. The economy recovered. The nation was changed into an entirely new cultural/economic model. Farming was automated. Horses were retired from farm and transportation work. We became suburban and urban. We bought cars and homes. We became consumers in huge numbers. We created the baby boom and sent them to college. We consumed, we wasted, we polluted. We became a super power because everyone else had been trampled by war and destruction.

[breeding]

12:22 PM on 05/29/2010

People who think this way are living in the past. This worked ONCE in recent history. Just prior to WWII we were in a severe economic depression with no way to go but UP. (We had handed the rich the keys to the kingdom, suffered through a Gilded Age not even as bad as the one we are in now, and then watched as the Stock Market crashed.) Most people were not college educated as we were still largely a rural nation - and struggling at that due to the wasteful destruction of the soil in the nation's "Bread Basket". Remember the Dust Bowl and Okies? Our manufacturing sector was growing but still very small by today's standards. These were pre-war desperate times.

[gmb007]

11:37 AM on 05/29/2010

Apparently, war is not only obscenely profitable, but supremely satisfying to the ego:

"As I have heard Bush say, only a wartime president is likely to achieve greatness, in part because the epochal upheavals of war provide the opportunity for transformative change of the kind Bush hoped to achieve. In Iraq, Bush saw his opportunity to create a legacy of greatness."

Bush press secretary SCOTT MCCLELLAN, on Bush's need to be a wartime president to improve the chance of a "great" legacy, What Happened, pp. 131

[stephenlight]

11:08 AM on 05/29/2010

It is a sad thing that this will receive so little attention outside of this little corner of the media. Bush is out of power and if he said he was the love child of Katherine Hepburn and the Pope, it would still get little play.

I'm sure that Kirchner has his own ax to grind, but sadly, this is completely believable.

[gmb007]

01:56 PM on 05/29/2010

Why do you assume that Kirchner has an ax to grind?

What would he have to gain by lying? - both he and Bush are out of power.

Even among politicians, sometimes truth is just truth.

[gmb007]

10:16 AM on 05/29/2010

PURE EVIL.

[ThermoChemist]

10:32 PM on 05/28/2010

As I've stated before, the GOP ["Party before Country"] follow the
"Ferengi Rules of Acquisition"...!

Dubya just CONFIRMED it (again) as he says "War is good for business".
[it's on the list]

+++++

- Once you have their money ... never give it back.
- Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity.
- Greed is eternal.

- Anything worth doing is worth doing for money.
- A deal is a deal ... until a better one comes along.
- Satisfaction is not guaranteed.

- Never place friendship above profit.
- Nothing is more important than your health--except for your money.
- There's nothing more dangerous than an honest businessman.

- It never hurts to suck up to the boss.
- War is good for business.

- The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife.
- Never ASK when you can TAKE.
- Keep your lies consistent.

- Beware of the Vulcan greed for knowledge.
- Trust is the biggest liability of all.
- There is no honor in poverty.

- Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack.
- Treat people in your debt like family ... exploit them.
- Everything is for sale, even friendship.

- Not even dishonesty can tarnish the shine of profit.
- Let others keep their reputation. You keep their money.

- Employees are rungs on the ladder of success. Don't hesitate to step on them.
- Never be afraid to mislabel a product.
- More is good ... all is

[spiralskydancer]

09:17 PM on 05/28/2010

greetings.....well i'll be damned...there it is....the truth about the American economy....the essence of why the Iraq war, the Afghan war, and the understanding of why Iran and Korea are coming right down the pike.....and all blurted out honestly from the mouth of one who knows......George Bush is not the smartest one in the ruling crowd, but he is in the crowd....thanks for passing it along Pres. Kirchner.......hope you weren't too stunned Ollie...

[Tackora]

09:12 PM on 05/28/2010

This beats the reason for Obama's nomination for Nobel Prize hands down. I am just not quite sure if Bush should be nominated for the Nobel in Economy or Peace.

[Justdontgetit]

09:04 PM on 05/28/2010

My brother had another surgery yesterday. The doctors are still trying to repair what those economy boosting grenades did to his body while he and others were/are in Iraq boosting the economy for Bush, Cheney & Co.

Since he is no longer able to work and my sister in law has to stay home to take care of him, I'll be sure to let him know how much better the US economy is now.

My niece and nephew will now understand why their dad can't take them fishing or go their school activities with them anymore.

So, it's all good.

[gmb007]

11:51 PM on 05/28/2010

That clearly puts things in perspective.

I very sincerely hope your brother is doing well after the surgery. I'll send up a prayer for him.

I offer my thanks to him for his service - I always support our servicemen/women, no matter what kind of politics are flying around.

Hang in there, friend and thank you for sharing your story.

[Justdontgetit]

12:29 AM on 05/29/2010

I miss him. I miss my brother. So much. I know we're so much more than lucky that we got got the shell back, but I do miss him.