George W. Bush Warns Against Withdrawal From Afghanistan: 'Women Would Suffer' (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON -- After 10 years in Afghanistan, former President George W. Bush doesn't think it's quite time to pull out of Afghanistan yet.

"My concern of course is that the United States gets weary of being in Afghanistan, it is not worth it, let's leave," Bush said in an interview that aired Thursday on Fox News' "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren." "And Laura and I believe that if that were to happen, women would suffer again. We don't believe that's in the interests of the United States or the world to create a safe haven for terrorists and stand by and watch women's rights be abused.

The interview came as The George W. Bush Institute in Dallas is hosting a two-day conference on women's economic opportunities in Afghanistan.

"We liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban, because of providing a safe haven for Al Qaeda," Bush said in his interview with Van Susteren. "I believed then and now we have an obligation to help this young democracy in Afghanistan survive. And thrive. And one of the best and most effective ways is to empower women."

Bush added that he has heard there is "great progress" in the cities of Afghanistan, although there's still often an "inherent prejudice" against women.

"In the rural areas of Afghanistan in particular, women are still subjected to barbaric rule," he said. "So the objective is not to look and say how terrible it is. It is to think how good it can be."

WATCH:

Bush has kept a relatively low profile post-presidency, and the interview marked one of the first times he has commented on the war in Afghanistan, which he launched in 2001, since leaving office.

First Lady Laura Bush also spoke with Van Susteren and reiterated the need to help empower women in Afghanistan, saying, "[W]e know that economies can't succeed unless all the people can be involved. In countries where half the population, where the women are left out of the economy and can't work we see countries that are failing and economies that are failing."

In early March, The Washington Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran reported that the Obama administration is lowering its expectations and opting to focus less on transforming women's rights in Afghanistan than it had been, with one senior official saying, "Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities. There’s no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project. All those pet rocks in our rucksack were taking us down."

Recently, there have also been reports about top Afghan officials trying to crack down on women's shelters and take control of them, prompting outcry from women's-rights advocates.

Comments

[dwynnsplace]

06:48 AM on 04/30/2011

Afghanistan is not a democracy its a tribal coalision at best.

Please, stop lieing to us (the American people).

Damn I am so tired of seeing any Bush or Clinton.

They are such an eyesore and have created a world of doubt and damage against America.

Please stop pandering to them.

"Veterans have earned the right to speak, even if you do not like what they have to say."
~DAVE~

[MaleMatters]

01:16 PM on 04/04/2011

Going to war — or staying at war — in other countries to protect women and their rights seems noble enough. But what may make the idea palatable to Bush and others is their perhaps unconscious view of men as disposable, a view shared by many in the world.

Going to war for women means sending or keeping male-only combat forces to risk life and limb. Suppose we used female-only combat forces. Americans would scream, "To save women in other countries, we must sacrifice American women? Where's the sense in that!"

I suspect even Bush would protest. But he seems to think there is no problem so long as only males come home in body bags.

To help curb war and create rights for everyone, maybe, just maybe, we ought to stop seeing men as disposable.

For much more, see "The Greater Outrage for Female Victims of Governments’ Brutality Perpetuates Risk to Both Sexes"
http://battlinbog.blog-city.com/governments_violence_against_the_sexes.htm

[Rapier]

10:19 AM on 04/04/2011

But look where Afghanistan before we intervened with the fundamentalists http://ofthisandthat.org/04012011LettertoPresident.html

[leftLibertarian]

08:29 AM on 04/04/2011

The Bush Crime Family splits the take with the Karzai Crime Family.

[jaredbrain]

03:10 PM on 04/02/2011

There's GOLD in them that hills!!!!

[Jeffin90019]

03:05 PM on 04/02/2011

Bush should kiss Obama's shoes every day for allowing this proud, mass murderer and war criminal to walk free. Of course, if Obama looked into the run-up leading to the Bush Daddy Issues wars, he would find Democrats like Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi were knee-deep in the lies that are ruining America. But we can all tell our children that even in America, a brain damaged alcoholic who belongs to a fringe cult religion, had a history of drug abuse, and a wife who committed manslaughter and sold pot in college (according to an uncontested report in a biography) can be president and first lady.

[westcoast]

02:40 PM on 04/02/2011

I preferred it when i didn't hear anything from the guy who has never made a correct assumption about anything in his miserable life. Get back to your gameboy and pretzels.

[guntotinganglion]

02:09 PM on 04/02/2011

The fact of this animal walking free is clear evidence of how perverted this country has become. Law means nothing, if you're powerful and have no limits placed on your behavior. His taking this "elder statesman" role is even more sick and twisted than Nixon doing the same thing after he walked away from the wreckage he caused. As vile as Nixon was, he actually had some intelligence. Caligula W. Bush has none of that.

What does it take to bring a monster like this to justice? Clearly killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Afghanis, in wars fabricated out of whole cloth, doesn't merit judicial attention. Clearly, the Constitution is only for photo ops. It's not worth the velum it's printed on if perverted miscreants like Caligula can use it for toilet paper.

This man has openly admitted to ordering torture, at least hundreds of times...if not thousands! What part of that being grossly illegal do people not understand?

It's all gonna be over soon anyway, because one way or another we're all going to die in the end. So why bother trying to make barbarians like Caligula act as if they're civilized?

[leftLibertarian]

08:30 AM on 04/04/2011

ask the Democrats, they are supposed to be the opposition party.

[guntotinganglion]

01:03 AM on 04/05/2011

This isn't a political issue, it's a legal issue. It's in the domain of the Justice Dept, which is not doing it's job. A man who was President has admitted to ordering torture, openly. He's even said he'd do it again! This man violated his oath of office when he chose to break the law and have people tortured. He broke his oath in so many ways it's ridiculous that he's walking free. This man is a stain on the United States and he really should be indicted for his crimes. There are people who've died in US custody, while being tortured, in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. This is a capital crime, as in the stuff that death penalties are made from. The War Crimes Act of 1996 clearly states that if a person dies while being tortured by a US national or member of the Armed Services of the US, the person who carried out the torture gets to face the death penalty. The man who ordered torture that resulted in death, is the responsible party and should face forfeiture of his/her life.

[bridgeman]

01:51 PM on 04/02/2011

Obama's new war consultant

[den1953]

01:41 PM on 04/02/2011

Perhaps Bush should have warned the United States about the Plague on America he unleashed on the American People and forget about dropping the ball in Afghanistan, how about how Bush profited from Afghanistan and Iraq that would be more interesting..........

[eternalscorpio1]

01:16 PM on 04/02/2011

yeah thats who we need to listen to on foriegn affairs, the worst foriegn policy president ever W, 11 years, thousands dead, trillions spent, and prestige wasted, it's time to end this mess and get out of Afghanistan...........

[Left Hook]

01:15 PM on 04/02/2011

Women in Phuckedupistan are suffering now...If we leave what's the diff - Nuthin!

That whole region is filled with primitive, 6th century cultures with a 6th-century religion as the constitution, remember?

[KyDude]

12:58 PM on 04/02/2011

The nerve of that FOOL. He leads us into Afghanistan, essentially abandoned the mission to invade Iraq, getting more than a hundred thousand people senselessly murdered, including our brave patriots, and putting our economy in the worst shape in our history. For what? His revenge and neo-con greed.

Afghans don't even know why we're there, and surely don't want us. We don't appreciate their choice to live as they do, we've fostered an enemy who wasn't, and all the killing happening now has little relation to the mission we started. GTFON

[greyhound2]

11:01 AM on 04/02/2011

If Bush wants to stay in Afganistan, let him pay for it.

[needlefingers]

10:33 AM on 04/02/2011

Bush never said that about Saudi Arabia when he was holding hands with their king at the Crawford barbecue.