|
Reporter: Mr. President, now that Iraq is in full fledged civil war and Iraqi Shiites are aiding the Iranian insurgency in its attacks against U.S. troops, do you feel you made a mistake in attacking Iraq in the first place?
Bush: Stretch, you always ask the good questions, heh heh (press corps laughs and smiles). Well, freedom, as you know, was firmly on the march in Iraq. Unfortunately, I had to make the difficult decision to attack Iran. They wouldn't comply with the world's demand that they abandon their nucular weapons programs. Part of that decision is that we can no longer count on Iraq to be the flower of freedom it would otherwise have been.
Reporter 2: But sir, what do you say to critics who say that your Iraq War was already a misguided, certain failure even before you decided to invade Iran?
Bush: Who you talking to?
Reporter 2: Sorry, Mr. President.
Bush: You'd better be Elmo, heh heh. (Press corps laughs and smiles.) Well, I understand politics. Those critics of my administration's successes in Iraq probably don't remember seeing the thousands of Iraqis with purple ink on their fingers fresh from the voting booth. They probably don't remember the schools we built. The civil war that erupted would not have happened if we weren't forced to invade Iran.
But would my critics prefer that Iran had nucular weapons? Now the people in Iran finally have a chance to catch a whiff of freedom. You can't judge the wonderful people of Iran and Iraq by the killers and terrorists who are trying to keep freedom from their own people. Do my critics think the Iranian and Iraqi people can't handle freedom? We must continue to support them in their fight against these terrorist killers.
...
|