Conason: The war president "at peace" with himself

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/09/28/aznar_iraq/

Bush's 2003 conversation with the Spanish prime minister shows his smug determination to invade Iraq at all costs.

By Joe Conason

George W. Bush answers a question during a joint news conference with Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar at the president's compound in Crawford, Texas, Feb. 22, 2003.

Sept. 28, 2007 | "The only thing that worries me is your optimism."

So remarked José María Aznar, then the prime minister of Spain, in a prescient moment during a February 2003 conversation with George W. Bush about the impending invasion of Iraq.

According to the transcript of that conversation published on Wednesday by the Spanish daily El Pais, Aznar implored Bush for "a little more patience" in building international consensus for action against Saddam Hussein and in seeking possible alternatives to war, in order to assuage the intense public opposition to American policy in Spain and throughout Europe.

The nervous Aznar asked repeatedly whether Saddam might perhaps be persuaded to leave Baghdad without military action -- eliciting a cryptic admission from Bush that it was indeed possible because the Egyptians were secretly discussing a possible deal with the Iraqi dictator that would allow him to depart with a billion dollars and "all the information he wants on weapons of mass destruction." Giving lip service to his own desire for a peaceful solution, Bush quipped that sending Saddam into exile would save "$50 billion," his administration's ridiculously low estimate for the war's cost (which will now exceed at least 20 times that amount), not to mention protect him from the agonizing responsibility for the deaths of American soldiers.

But Bush quickly waved away any such tantalizing possibility, along with all the rest of the concerns and proposals voiced by his staunchest ally next to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Instead, he sternly warned that any foreign leader who continued to oppose him would be punished. Indeed, displaying his usual flair for diplomacy, he mocked the Spanish leader's worries about the growing rift between the United States and its traditional allies across the Atlantic. "The more the Europeans attack me," gloated the president, "the stronger I am in the United States."

The Bush-Aznar transcript is not as damning as the Downing Street memo that surfaced on the front page of the Sunday Times of London on May 1, 2005, which indicated that Bush had decided on war as early as July 2002, and suggested that American intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction was being "fixed" to justify a preemptive invasion. Reportedly set down by Spain's ambassador to the United States during a weekend meeting at the president's home in Crawford, Texas, the transcript revolves around the Bush administration's frustrated effort to win approval for military action from the United Nations Security Council. It is yet another record of the illusions, the arrogance and the missed opportunities that characterized the administration's drive to war.

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What a coup they pulled off. Who will lock up these war criminals?

"I'm optimistic because I believe I'm right," replied the obtuse Bush. "I'm at peace with myself." That smug statement -- uttered by a man who had no idea what he was talking about and no interest in what anyone else believed -- could be the epitaph for his presidency.

with himself. He can't grasp the complexities of his decisions therefore no matter what decision he makes, no thought goes into the making of it or the consequences of that decision. Kind of like a kid deciding he wants a candy bar, to him it's the absolute right decision. Never mind his teeth are full of cavities and he's obese to boot.