When Raddatz asked Bush about his legacy, Bush first boasted about 52 months of uninterrupted job growth. Which is not actually accurate, for his claimed job growth did not keep up with the growth of the population and ignores the fact that at the begining and end of his administration the economy shed millions of jobs. In this year alone there have been 1.9 million jobs lost.
With the interview taking place in Iraq, it was inevitable that the interview would turn to the catastrophe that is Iraq. Bush of coures is completely clueless when it comes to Iraq. He justified the war in Iraq by suggesting it had been al Qaeda’s home base. When Raddatz corrected him, Bush dismissively replied, "So what?"
Watch it here:
Bush continues his refusal to take any responsibility for the consequences of his decisions, in fact Bush suggests that al Qaeda came to Iraq by chance, which is simply ridiculous. Bush actually says in the interview that Iraq “turn[ed] out to have been” the place where they “were going to take their stand.”
This is stupid on many levels, first al Qaeda’s existence in Iraq is 100 percent attributable to Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq. Al Qaeda never existed there before, and in fact, Saddam Hussein viewed Osama bin Laden as a threat and refused to support him. Second, I wish one person would point out that the reason Osama bin Laden has called Iraq the central front of the war on terror, and why he would wish to keep it there was that it was thousands of miles away from his base of operations.
Also lets not forget that throughout the run-up to war, Bush repeatedly cited supposed links between al Qaeda and Iraq to drum up support for the U.S. invasion. When those links proved to be utterly false — and perhaps even willingly fabricated — Bush began insisting that al Qaeda had chosen Iraq as the “central front in the war on terror,” and so the United States was forced to stay there and respond. In the meantime, more than 4,000 Americans have been killed, 30,000 maimed, and nearly 100,000 Iraqis killed.
Bush also continued to dismiss the incident when Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi threw his shoes at Bush and shouted, “This is a farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
Bush said that Zaidi’s actions were “bizarre” but had no larger significance:
In the interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz yesterday, Bush laughed off Zaidi’s actions as “amusing.” “I don’t know what his beef is,” said Bush. “But whatever it is I’m sure somebody will hear it.”Q Well, not to belabor the point too much, on this man, but I have a serious question about it. Obviously he’s expressing a vein of anger that exists in Iraq, and —
BUSH: How do you know? I mean, how do we know what he’s expressing? Who — […] I’ve heard all kinds of stories. I heard he was representing a Baathist TV station. I don’t know the facts, but let’s find out the facts. All I’m telling you, it was a bizarre moment. […] I don’t think you can take one guy throwing shoes and say this represents a broad movement in Iraq. You can try to do that if you want to. I don’t think it would be accurate. … That’s exactly what he wanted you to do. Like I answered on your question, what he wanted you to do was to pay attention to him. And sure enough, you did.
Watch it here:
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