President Bush held a rare press conference Tuesday, taking
reporters’ questions on a variety of of important topics.
It’s too bad he didn’t actually answer most of the
inquiries.
Instead, Bush “stuck to the script.” He talked about
the importance of fighting terrorism and Saddam Hussein’s
abysmal human rights record. He said if he had known al-Qaeda had
designs to fly planes into buildings he would have done
something.
But after Bush’s meeting with the media Americans were
still left without adequate explanations from their president about
future U.S. involvement in Iraq, the reasons for going to war in
the first place, and the possibility of pre-Sept. 11, 2001,
intelligence and policy failures.
That’s because Bush played a game of dodge ball.
The first reporter asked the president to respond to the
Vietnam-Iraq analogy and address declining U.S. popularity for the
war. Bush answered that the analogy was “false” and
that he doesn’t govern by opinion polls. That was perhaps the
president’s most frank response.
Next, Bush was asked for a prediction on how long the United
States will remain in Iraq. He was vague, saying “as long as
necessary and not one day more.”
Bush was reminded that before the war his administration said
Americans would be greeted as liberators, that oil revenue would
pay for much of the reconstruction and that Iraq had weapons of
mass destruction. The reporter asked, “How do you explain …
how you got it so wrong?”
Bush failed to address why the country was misled. He did say
that oil revenues were indeed high and that most Iraqis were
“really pleased we got rid of Saddam Hussein.” He
didn’t mention WMD, the violent resistance troops face or why
taxpayers were stuck with an unexpected $87 billion reconstruction
bill.
Bush was asked if he felt any personal responsibility for what
happened on Sept. 11. He said he feels “incredibly
grieved” when he meets with family members but did not answer
the question.
Bush was asked to name his biggest mistake after Sept. 11. As
part of his response, he said, “You know, I just
““Â I’m sure something will pop into my head here in
the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying
to come up with answer, but it hadn’t yet.” (It never
did.)
One exchange was comical. Bush was asked why he was appearing
before the 9/11 commission with the vice president rather than by
himself as the commission requested. Bush said, “The 9/11
commission wants to ask us questions, that’s why we’re
meeting with them.” The reporter persisted, why were they
meeting together, not separately? Bush said, “It’s a
good chance for both of us to answer questions that the 9/11
commission is looking forward to asking us.”
While he failed to answer substantive questions, Bush did plant
images of fear into people’s minds. He said it made him sick
to think of Americans dying from terrorist attacks or during
war.
He was willing to exploit death and destruction to boost his
support but was largely unwilling to discuss important questions
about the Iraq War and Sept. 11.
That should make people sick.
Transcripts of Bush’s press conference available on
most national newspapers’ Web sites.