by Amos Regev and Boaz Bismuth
Hat tip: Jean-Charles Bensoussan
Former U.S. President George W. Bush tells Israel Hayom in an exclusive interview, "My strategy, the Bush doctrine, was to vigorously pursue those who do us harm and bring them to justice" • "America has been very supportive of Israel," he remarks.
"I admire our military a lot," says former U.S. President George W. Bush, seen here posing with U.S. troops in Iraq in 2008
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Photo credit: Reuters 
"I don't think you can lead people if there is self-pity and you keep telling yourself 'oh, this is too hard,'" President Bush said during the interview
President Bush's portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin
"There is only one thing that I really miss
about being president, and that's being the commander-in-chief. I admire
our military a lot," former U.S. President George W. Bush tells Israel
Hayom, his eyes twinkling. "When you are the commander-in-chief, at a
time when I was, when you put them into a lot of combat situations, you
develop a special bond, not only with the military but with their
families."
"I would salute men and women in uniform on a daily basis," he says.
It has been more than six years since Bush
left the White House, at the culmination of two terms that have been
etched into the collective memory of Americans thanks to the major
events that rocked the United States during that time: the 9/11
terrorist attacks and the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Since his
departure, Bush has kept his distance from American politics. He has
dedicated his time to cultivating the George W. Bush Presidential Center
in Texas, home to the Bush Presidential Library and Museum and the Bush
Institute, to globe-spanning projects, to writing two books ("Decision
Points," about his own presidency, and "41: A Portrait of My Father,"
about George H. W. Bush), and most recently he has taken up painting.
In the background, the questions linger: About
his legacy, namely in Iraq. He has always said, and in fact signed off
his book with the words "ultimately, history will judge." But even now,
with the Middle East undergoing massive changes, it appears that
Americans are beginning to change their minds about him for the better.
In a poll conducted by CNN last week, 52% of respondents said that they
view the former president positively. That is a higher approval rating
than the current president enjoys.
We met the former president in Las Vegas, in
between his many engagements. He was laid back, displayed a sharp sense
of humor and demonstrated a lot of emotion, especially on topics like
the military, defense and homeland security. We reminded him of an
excerpt from his book in which he describes a farewell visit with
American troops in Afghanistan. A unit of elite Army Rangers stood
before him, saluted and declared that they would extend their service,
pledging to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States
against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Bush was extremely moved.
"I met with a lot of families of the fallen.
And I tried to do it out of the press. I didn't want people to think ...
that it was just out of self-pity," he says. "I went to the Walter Reed
Army Medical Center all the time. You know what they told me most of
the time? 'I'd do it again Mr. President. You know, I hope I get well so
I can go into combat.'"
The war snuck up on then-President Bush with
the al-Qaida attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In his
book he says that the week of the attacks was the key to understanding
his entire presidency. He writes that he poured his heart and soul into
defending the country, "by any means necessary."
To us he says that no one prepared him for
becoming a "two-war president" but reality supplied him with a lot of
challenges in the White House. He says he had to make very difficult
decisions -- sending boys to defend the homeland with the knowledge that
not all of them would return.
Q: I have always wanted to ask you, Mr.
President, about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Can you tell us what your
reaction was when you were told about the attack on the World Trade
Center?
"I was in a classroom and a child was reading a
book to me. I was there for education reform. I was trying to get a
piece of legislation passed through Congress: 'No Child Left Behind.' I
knew the first airplane had hit the building but I thought it was an
accident. There wasn't a lot of time to analyze it because I was heading
into a classroom. That initial picture was a little fuzzy.
"I called Condi [then-National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice] and she didn't know what was happening. I told
her to get hold of New York and to make sure the mayor received federal
assistance.
"Then I am reading, listening to the child
reading, and [Chief of Staff] Andy Card says 'second plane's hit second
tower -- America is under attack.' And I believed him.
"It was a startling statement to hear as
president. The press corps has crowded inside -- when the leader is out
in public the press is always close by. I have been in crises before,
and the first step of a crisis is not to panic because the people follow
a leader. If the leader panics there is more panic. So I waited for the
appropriate moment to leave the classroom.
"I kept thinking 'What does this mean?' When I
got out, I started getting a full briefing and I realized that the
second plane was in fact an airliner. I gave a statement to a classroom
full of parents who hadn't got the news and I saw firsthand the shock,
the doubt and all the negative impulses that were coursing through our
country right there in front of me. People always get nervous when they
are around the president, and now the president had walked in and rather
than saying 'you have a wonderful reading program' he says, 'you are
under attack and we are going to deal with it.'
I didn't know what it meant. I just said we
were going to deal with it. To try to convey a sense of confidence. They
were shocked and horrified and sad. Every negative thing you can think
of. I was in the car rushing to Air Force One.
"Condi calls me and says the planes hit the
Pentagon. And I knew we were at war. There was no doubt in my mind that
this was a declaration of war against the United States and all at once I
became a wartime president. The truth of the matter is that during the
debates and the campaign [for president] no one asked me the question,
'How will you conduct yourselves as commander-in-chief during war?' And I
vowed to defend our country. I thought a lot about this little girl who
was reading. I made a lot of tough decisions, all of them to protect
our homeland."
Q: When you first entered the White House, did you entertain the possibility that you would be a wartime leader?
"The first time I ran for president [in 2000]
there was no war. That the U.S. would be attacked crossed no one's mind.
No one thought that 3000 would die as a result of thugs who are willing
to use our own assets to murder people. Therefore once that happened we
began to think about what other ways they could hurt us.
"It took us a while to figure out who they
were, and where they were, but we were relentless in pursuit. A lot of
brave people were on their trail and I told them, 'Let's go.' There was
no hesitation whatsoever about bringing them to justice. Initially
everyone was united -- 90% of people approved of what we were doing. And
of course, over time, as your leaders have learned, war is very
difficult; people lose their lives; stories get out. But I felt leaders
had to be relentless in a smart way, relentless because it is hard to
ask a special ops soldier to take enormous risks if the president
himself was not being firm in his resolve. I don't think you can lead
people if there is self-pity and you keep telling yourself 'oh, this is
too hard.' But it was not in my nature to yield to an enemy that wanted
to kill our citizens."
Q: Your book is very interesting because it
focuses on the decision-making process. Among other things you wrote
that you never got a manual on how to handle a crisis like 9/11. How did
you make decisions?
"Decision-making works best when you have a
clear strategy. And I laid out a strategy shortly after 9/11, based on
my strong belief that we were facing an ideological movement that was
willing to murder the innocent to achieve their objectives. And my
strategy, called the Bush Doctrine, was as follows: No matter how long
it takes, we will vigorously pursue those who do us harm and bring them
to justice. Second, if you harbor a terrorist, you are as guilty as the
terrorist.
"The United States could no longer afford to
analyze threats and hope that they didn't materialize. The 9/11 attacks
were a wake-up call for our country because they basically meant that we
were vulnerable to an attack no matter how many miles of oceans
protected us.
"Another aspect of the strategy was that the
only way to defeat an ideology of hate is with an ideology of hope. So
all decision-making sprung from that doctrine.
"When I said it I meant it. I was very clear. I
thought clearly about it and spoke as plainly as I could to friend and
foe alike and then pursued it. So many of the decisions that I made,
particularly on homeland security, were based upon that doctrine.
"There was an emotional attachment of course
-- when I was told that we were under attack, I was staring at a child
who was reading a book. I thought about her often. Because the most
important job of a president or a leader is to protect the country and
the homeland. The citizens rely on your judgment and your decisions to
protect the homeland; and that is what I did almost every day as
president. I thought about how best to secure us."
Q: In your book, you quote Abraham Lincoln,
who said that "the clash between freedom and tyranny is an issue that
can only be tried by war and decided by victory." You added that the war
on terror operated on the same principle. Has that war been won?
"No. There will not be a complete victory
until ideologies of hate are marginalized. How do you achieve that? I
think that by advancing a society in which the population gets to decide
the fate of their government as opposed to governments deciding what is
going to happen to the population. There are very few countries in the
Middle East that do that. Israel is one. Israel is a country where the
will of the people determines the fate of the government. Iraq was one.
It was a parliamentary system, it still is. Things have changed on the
ground there of course. But terror still exists.
"Is it possible to secure and to provide
another environment in which the terrorists are less likely to prevail?
Yes. It is possible and necessary. Will it be a short-term process? No.
It takes time. And so I was labeled a hopeless idealistic guy, but I
don't see how you can possibly achieve an objective unless you have a
vision. The answer is that this is an enemy that requires constant
pressure.
"Now our president has said that we would
degrade and defeat ISIS [Islamic State]. And I certainly hope we do. I
think it is a noble and necessary goal -- it involves recognizing that
there is still a threat. You know I plotted for that goal and I hope
that strategy works."
Q: Is the war on terror currently being waged in the proper way?
"I made a decision, as you know, not to
criticize my successors, with an s. I am going to be around a little bit
longer -- there is going to be more than one successor. The temptation
is to try to rewrite history or to make yourself look good by
criticizing someone else. I think that is a mistake. I don't think that
is what leadership is all about. I know how hard the job is. I didn't
like it when former leaders criticized me when I was president. Some
did, so I decided not to do the same."
Q: You mentioned ISIS, you spoke about
defeating terror. Is it possible to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq
without boots on the ground?
"The president will have to make that
determination. My position was that you need to have boots on the
ground. As you know, I made a very difficult decision. A fair number of
people in our country were saying that it was impossible to defeat
al-Qaida -- which is ISIS as far as I am concerned. They said I must get
out of Iraq. But I chose the opposite -- I sent 30,000 more troops as
opposed to 30,000 fewer. I think history will show that al-Qaida in Iraq
was defeated. And so I chose the path of boots on the ground. We will
see whether or not our government adjusts to the realities on the
ground."
Q: During your presidency, the nation was
ready to persist in the war on terror for as long as it took. In your
book you describe an incident at ground zero where people called on you
to pursue the terrorists and eliminate them, whatever it took. Are the
American people still willing to make that sacrifice?
"One of my big concerns is about the
tendencies in United States to be isolationist. That has happened
throughout our history. I mean World War II is a classic example where
the 'America First' policy basically said 'who cares what happens in
Europe.' As a result, there were terrible times.
"Isolation, and a certain fatigue, could come
along with protectionist sentiments. The president is trying to pass a
trade bill, and you see protectionist tendencies trying to fight off the
trade bill, and there is a nativist element too. In the 1920s there was
a period when we were isolationists. It was said we had too many Jews
and too many Italians. Therefore we decided against immigration. And you
begin to see the reverberations of history in 2015. Do they all relate
to each other? I happen to think they do. I think it requires leadership
to explain to the American people why our involvement overseas is
important. Which is one of the real lessons of 9/11 -- that human
conditions elsewhere matter to our security."
Q: Nowadays, the over-arching issue for Israel
is Iran. You talk about Iran in your book and you write that you had
three options: an agreement, aggressive diplomacy or attack. So what do
you think should be done with Iran?
"This is a very delicate subject which I am
not going to comment on. Every comment I make on this would be
interpreted as undermining the president's decision. Therefore I am
going to let this issue rest."
Q: But the Iranian regime is so contrarian in its values to American values. Can it be trusted?
"That is a judgment that people have to make.
When somebody says something, do they mean it? Every president, every
prime minister, every person has to make those kinds of judgments. Do
they believe what they say? When I was president sometimes people would
tell me one thing and mean another. It happens often in politics. You
have to adjust to that. You have to be realistic on whether you can
trust a person's word. The president is going to have to make this
judgment call."
Q: During your presidency, you decided
together with Tony Blair that action must be taken in Iraq. The reason
was that Saddam Hussein's regime did not comply with Security Council
resolutions. Can you explain your rationale?
"As we analyzed threats around the world, the
biggest threat to our homeland at the time was, and probably still is,
the use of chemical or biological weapons or dirty bombs provided by
somebody to the network that had just struck us. So we started analyzing
and asking ourselves who. Every intelligence agency in the world said
this guy had chemical weapons. He was a bad enemy of the U.S. and so I
went to the U.N. -- not easy for a West Texas boy to do -- and got a
resolution passed unanimously, that said 'disclose, disarm or face
serious consequences.'
"And I meant it. These weren't just idle
words. It is the third leg of the Bush Doctrine -- we have to take
threats seriously before they fully materialize. As you know from the
book I tried diplomacy, but he defied the resolutions. A lot of people
forget that the drumbeat in the United States was significant. 'When are
you going to move?' There was great impatience to my decision-making.
"Well-known politicians today gave speeches on
the floor of the Senate demanding action. Secretaries of state of the
recent administration said 'you got to get him.' But nobody commits
troops except for the president. And once those troops are committed,
terrible things can happen to American families. And so I was deliberate
in my judgment and thought we may be able to solve this out in the
open, in order to determine whether our fears were justified.
"But this was a man who said 'no inspections.'
He used chemical weapons, the world thought he had chemical weapons, he
refused to let inspectors in and we gave him a chance."
Q: You went to war in Iraq because Saddam
Hussein did not comply with a resolution requiring inspection. How can
anybody make a deal with Iran when its leader has vowed not to allow
inspections?
"Look, the president will have to make the best decision he can make."
Q: As a former president, is it getting easier or more difficult to defend Israel in the international arena?
"I think America is still very pro-Israel. A
lot of people say my pro-Israel position is based upon my faith, my
Christianity. No. While Israel is important for faith and the whole
Bible is based upon Israel, my support is because Israel is a longtime
ally and a democracy. Remember, I am an advocate of democracy as a means
for peace. And therefore it is important to defend a democracy.
"Our countries have something in common: We
have both experienced terrorist attacks. Therefore there was a
commonality of purpose. I think there are a lot of religious people in
this country who believe Israel is the homeland of their religion and
therefore needs to be defended. Others say that it is a functioning
democracy and democracies are our allies. Others still cite historical
reasons.
"For whatever reason, I do believe there is
strong support for Israel in America. I know that in certain parts in
our country there are divestiture programs. A lot of them happen to be
on college campuses and stuff like that. I don't spend too much time
there. My part of the world, the people I deal with, they are very
strongly for Israel."
Q: Israel is the only country in the Middle
East where the U.S. is always popular, even when the incumbent president
is unpopular.
"I hope so. America has been very supportive
of Israel. I went to Yale with guys who were very much involved with the
Jewish youth movements, and I did an Israel Bonds event the other day
and a number of people who came up to me told me 'my kid is now in an
exchange program in Israel.'
"Europe seems to have a tendency not to be
very supportive of Israel. I don't know if it has gotten worse or not.
It appears to be from afar. I don't know. If foreign policy is an issue,
the subject of Israel will of course come up and it will force
candidates to commit one way or another to the defense of Israel, which
is in Israel's best interest."
Q: In Israel, you were a popular president. You still are.
"Well, [laughs] that is not the reason to be in office however."
Q: Let's talk about art and leadership. Some
have compared your paintings to [20th century Jewish painter] Chaim
Soutine's portraits.
"The questions that everyone needs to ask
themselves is whether they are going to live life to its fullest or not.
Are you going to take advantage of things that you never thought you
would do? In my post-presidency I have written a book, and that has
helped a lot. I wrote another book. It is brand new. It is about an
extraordinary man -- my father. It will be a very historical document
because never has a son of a president written about the president. So
the paintings are along these lines.
"I read Winston Churchill's essay 'Painting as
a Pastime,' and it is a really interesting essay. I started looking at
Churchill's paintings and I said 'wow, I can do this.' I had no interest
in art. I took no art history courses. You could name artists -- take
Claude Monet: I heard of him but I had no clue what his paintings looked
like; museums were not among my biggest interests.
"Three years ago I said I was going to try
something that nobody thinks I can do -- and I hired an instructor and
started painting. These paintings came about because my instructor's
instructor at Southern Methodist University came to my house and said 'I
have confidence in your painting abilities. Why don't you paint the
leaders with whom you served?'
"That was a very interesting suggestion
because it really meant that it would deflect the techniques; they
wouldn't be nearly as important as what people said: 'Bush likes so and
so; he thinks this about somebody.'
"We put them up in the Bush Library in the
context of personal diplomacy because you cannot make tough decisions
and build a coalition unless you really understand the people you are
dealing with."
Bush has already painted the portraits of 24
world leaders. The portraits do indeed reflect his personal feelings
toward his subjects. He especially likes the portrait he painted of his
father. The painting is full of love; it almost radiates from it.
On the other hand, his portrait of Russian
President Vladimir Putin reflects stiffness. There is not a lot of love
there. Bush once recounted that when he hosted Putin at the White House,
the Russian leader scoffed at Bush's dog -- a small Scottish Terrier.
"You call that a dog?" he said. Later, when Bush visited the Kremlin,
Putin boasted that his huge black Labrador was "bigger, stronger and
faster than your dog."
"I thought to myself 'wow, anyone who says
that their dog is bigger than someone else's dog must be an interesting
personality," Bush recalled. Putin's portrait apparently reflects Bush's
impression of the man.
But now, he says, he has shifted from painting
portraits to painting cactuses. "Cactuses provide very interesting
shapes and colors," he says.
Q: Who are you going to support in the 2016 presidential election?
"I am out of politics and I am not going to
political rallies, but if my older brother Jeb seeks my help, I will
give it to him. I love him dearly. I think he will be a great president.
But my brother is somewhat complicating my staying out of politics
because I am strongly for him, but I won't be very active publicly.
"You can say that I am for my brother. You can
write this down. I am for my brother. My brother would be a very good
president. Sometimes the name helps. But not always.
"The way I put it: When I ran I inherited half
my father's friends and all his enemies. And so Jeb has good executive
experience; he is very smart; he has a very good record and he is a
leader."
Q: In your book you talk about the day after
the presidency. How you returned to Texas, took your dog out for walks,
and suddenly thought to yourself that yesterday you were the leader of
the free world and now you are picking up after your dog. Do you miss
being president?
"No. I don't miss the job. I don't miss it,
because I poured my heart into it for eight years. You know, I miss
certain aspects of the job. I miss my friends that I served with. I miss
being pampered. The White House is very nice as you remember. The food
is excellent. Every morning, whenever I wanted coffee, someone would
bring it.
"The adjustment is an unusual adjustment. One
minute you are the president and upon the oath of office you are not the
president. Just like that. Now we were very fortunate in that we knew
where we were going -- our home, and our ranch that we love. And so I
flew to Crawford and woke up the next morning, and it was a strange
feeling because a sense of responsibility that had been ingrained in
your system was no longer there. You don't realize. Men kind of adjust
to the environment in which they live, and you don't really realize the
adjustment process until the environment changes drastically. And in
this case it changed a lot."
Q: Iraq has returned to the forefront now,
thanks to the movie "American Sniper" among other things. Do you think
it is a good movie?
"I think it is. It's in Texas. The guy is in
Texas. It is a little too Hollywood. I doubt he was on the telephone
with his wife when he was getting ready to shoot people."
Q: Does the movie reflect the American spirit?
"It does. I think people need an explanation on why the
mission is important. I will tell you this -- in this coming campaign,
foreign policy is going to be an issue. It is generally not an issue in
American politics. The economy is usually the issue. Are we growing as
well as we should be growing? Are people getting paid better? Are our
lives improving? But if foreign policy becomes the main issue, it will
mean that the American people are paying attention to it, partly because
people are aware of potential threats to the country. People getting
their heads cut off. I think Americans are going to pay attention to
this issue."
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=26127&hp=1
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