Mr. Gibson: You’ve always said there’s no do-overs as President. If you had one?
Mr. Bush: I don’t know — the biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their
reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn’t just people in my administration; a
lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all
looking at the same intelligence. And, you know, that’s not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess.
Mr. Gibson: If the intelligence had been right, would there have been an Iraq war?
Mr. Bush: Yes, because Saddam Hussein was unwilling to let the inspectors go in to determine whether or not the U.N. resolutions were being upheld.
In other words, if he had had weapons of mass destruction, would there have been a war? Absolutely.
Mr. Gibson: No, if you had known he didn’t.
Mr. Bush: Oh, I see what you’re saying. You know, that’s an interesting question. That is a do-over that I can’t do. It’s hard for me to
speculate. |
