Embargoed Interview-FORD ON IRAQ: "Rumsfeld+Cheney+Bush Made Big Mistake Going To War"

[kpete]

Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq

By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 28, 2006; Page A01

Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. "I don't think I would have gone to war," he said a little more than a year after President Bush had launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration.

"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

In a conversation that veered between the current realities of a war in the Middle East and the old complexities of the war in Vietnam whose bitter end he presided over as president, Ford took issue with the notion of the United States entering a conflict in service of the idea of spreading democracy.

"Well, I can understand the theory of wanting to free people," Ford said, referring to Bush's assertion that the United States has a "duty to free people." But the former president said he was skeptical "whether you can detach that from the obligation number one, of what's in our national interest." He added: "And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security."


more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/27/AR2006122701558.html

[Tin Man]

1. Impossible - Ford was evil incarnate. I know, I read it at DU

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. shhh

it's ok

:-)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. Well, maybe if he had come out

with his views, it might have swayed a few votes against, no?

That makes him, well, at least bad.

[Tin Man]

4. Since when is anyone compelled to share their opinion?

:shrug:

[greenman3610]

5. uhm, when it might save a few hundred thousand lives?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. When one is a "senior statesman" and

retired President, that's when.

[Tin Man]

13. You picked the key description - "retired president". As in no longer serving.

At any given time, the nation has but one sitting president. Former presidents are loath to speak out on current political issues because they respect the power and integrity of the office that they formerly held. They understand that the last thing the country needs is 5 active Presidents.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. WTF is an "embargoed" interview?

[malaise]

8. Well it is very interesting

that we're actualy hearing the tape now. MSM or Woodward apparently made the decision that we did not need to hear it.

[NNN0LHI]

9. It means he made two tapes back in '04

One for if things went well in Iraq and another for if thing went bad.

That way Ford gets to be on the "right" side of history no matter what happened.

In some parlances its called a stacked deck.

Don

[Tesha]

11. "Embargoed news" is news provided on the condition that...

"Embargoed news" is news provided on the condition that
it not be revealed until some future time or event.

For example, if I'm General Motors and have just invented
a car that runs on water and gets 100 miles/gallon, I might
write a press release and issue it out to everyone, but on
the basis that it be "embargoed" until 09:00 Monday when it
becomes free for everyone to simultaneously use. In this
case, the embargo covers the varying time that it takes
for the press release to reach everyone.

This sort of embargo is very, very commonly done.

Ford probably gave the interview but "embargoed" until his
death.

Tesha

[Toots]

10. an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

How they should justify it, not in the deed itself. He felt they were fools for using such obvious LIES but not for doing their evil deeds..

[mtnester]

12. You know, I am about sick to death of Woodward jacking this country around

We are hearing about this now?

Embargoed interview?


Bob - could you twist in the wind any more than you do now?


Sheesh.

[lumpy]

14. Ford agreed to Woodward interview on condition that it

only be published after his death. It was rather cowardly not taking public responsibility for his own thoughts.