Eugene Robinson: Regret-Me-Not; Bush tries to rewrite history

[DeepModem Mom]

Regret-Me-Not
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, December 5, 2008; Page A25

Remember that long-ago news conference when George W. Bush couldn't think of any mistakes he had made? Unbelievably, he still can't.

When ABC's Charles Gibson, interviewing Bush at Camp David, asked the president what one "do-over" he'd like to have, this was Bush's reply:

"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."

Fellow sufferers from Bush Derangement Syndrome, mind your blood pressure. Just seven more weeks. Hang in there, because there are two more snippets from the interview that I have to quote.

When Gibson asked whether there would have been an Iraq war if Bush had known that Hussein had no WMDs, Bush replied: "You know, that's an interesting question. That is a do-over that I can't do. It's hard for me to speculate." And when Gibson asked Bush to name his greatest accomplishment, he got this response: "I keep recognizing we're in a war against ideological thugs and keeping America safe."

Observe the astounding selectivity of the president's memory. Just imagine all the do-overs he could have asked for....

***

Bush spoke of having liberated Iraqis from the savage rule of a tyrant -- which is true, but that wasn't the reason we were originally told we had to go to war. The president spoke of having created a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, one that would shoot out tendrils of freedom to take root throughout the region -- which is a hard story to sell when the war's greatest geopolitical impact has been to strengthen theocratic Iran to the point that it dares to dream of ancient Persian glory.

Bush pats himself on the back for keeping his eye on the ball -- the "war against ideological thugs." But those ideological thugs are ensconced somewhere, probably in the lawless frontier territories of Pakistan, rebuilding their murderous networks and plotting new attacks. I'm betting that they don't regret Bush's decision to invade Iraq, either.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120402859.html?nav%3Dhcmodule&sub=AR