Ford attacks Bush over Iraq invasion in message from beyond the grave | Iraq | Guardian Unlimited
President George Bush, accustomed to criticism from Republicans of his fathers generation, suffered a rebuke from beyond the grave from the late president Gerald Ford yesterday in published comments calling the war on Iraq a mistake.
In an interview with the Washington Posts Bob Woodward, granted on condition that it be published only after Mr Fords death, the late president said he strongly disagreed with Mr Bushs stated justification for the war – that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. He also suggested Mr Bush had departed from his overriding duty as president to act in Americas national interest.
"I dont think I would have gone to war," Mr Ford told Woodward in an interview at his Colorado home in July 2004. "I would have maximised our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever to find another answer."
The criticism from Mr Ford extended to the architects of the war – the former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and the vice-president, Dick Cheney – an inclusion that must have been especially wounding for both men, who served in the Ford administration and considered the former president a lifelong friend.
I tried to quote from the original Washington Post article yesterday, but the link had some sort of Javascript error, so I deleted the whole damn thing and started over. This link to the Guardian's story is likely to be more durable, and less likely to drop into Archive Limbo as one to the Chicago Trib.
Anyway.
As it says, Bush the Less is accustomed to hearing criticism from Republicans of his dad's generation. And the implication is that he's accustomed to ignoring them. As he ignores his own dad, because he listens only to his higher Father, I suppose.
Given that, I'm not certain that this opinion of Ford's would have changed anything had it been made public before we sallied off to Iraq with our flags flying, all puffed up with our zeal to bring the Gospel of Democracy to the unbeliever. I am certain, however, that we're getting our under-armored asses handed to us, and we can thank Bush the Less and his enablers for that.
