The topic of past couple posts has been George Bush and his weak attempt at reflecting on mistakes he made. My intent is not to pick on George #43, as that room is very crowded. Instead, I used George to illustrate tendencies that prevent learning from mistakes.
Tonight, George Bush will give his final speech as U.S. President to the country. What if, instead of the underwhelming reflections he provided at the press conference, he explained his mistakes as follows?
The biggest mistake of my administration was concluding Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I must emphasize that we truly believed he had weapons and was being evasive with the United Nations. We viewed these weapons posed a terrorist threat to the United States. But as I reflect back, I am disappointed at myself and my administration for not recognizing that the weapons evidence was inconclusive. We should have seen this. But the unfortunate fact is that we didn’t–and the burden of this mistake is something I must live with and I will be rightfully judged by historians on the implications of this mistake.
Would the Iraq war have happened if we only suspected–as opposed to concluded–Saddam had weapons of mass destruction? Regardless of the weapons issue, was the removal of Hussein the right decision? These are legitimate questions that can be debated–I certainly have my opinion and historians will develop theirs. Nonetheless, the fact that the premises for the war was flawed is my greatest mistake.
Other mistakes were related to how the war was prosecuted. Should the Abu Ghraib ever been allowed to happen? No, and as Commander-in-Chief I bear responsibility. Were our pre-surge tactics correct? With the benefit of hindsight, clearly not. I ask myself why my team and I took as long as we did to realize we needed to change our tactics. The rhetoric I used at times–particularly “Wanted Dead or Alive” and “Mission Accomplished”–were completely inappropriate.
I am proud that America hasn’t been attacked since 9/11. I believe the tactics we used–including some that we have received wide-spread criticism–were appropriate given the circumstances. I believe they saved American lives, and a lot of them. Nonetheless, as I reflect back, I believe we did a horrible job in explaining this to the American people. I regret not getting the support of Congress–and the democrats in general–in what we were doing. As president, it was my job to ensure proper communication and collaboration. My administration fell short on this, and the accountability for this belongs to me. Etc…
Etched into a plaque on Harry Truman’s desk was “The Buck Stopped Here”. Perhaps 43’s biggest shortcoming is he didn’t really appreciate what this saying meant.
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Well, that would be one way to get out of taking questions after the press conference, since the entire Washington press corps would need their jaws surgically reattached…
Such food for thought Mr. Bear Dude. It is most certainly his lack of communication/positioning skills that hurt. After all, he isn’t the first President guilty of manipulating the data in order to justify what he wanted to do. He just got caught. The country might rally behind a guy who admitted to not being as good at a manipulative game that others played more masterfully for centuries, which resulted in far worse outcomes.
(Citing FDR/Truman example, Did he know about Pearl Harbor? Did he let it happen to justify war? Atomic bombs? Did he know the war was over when he dropped them?}
So, as I see it–it now seems he could skip all of this and just admit his true mistake was in not asking you to be his Press Secretary.