George W. Bush on his presidency: ‘There is such a thing as the fog of war’

BENTON HARBOR — Former President George W. Bush, in a nearly 90-minute-long unscripted address to the local economic development club in this down-trodden southwest Michigan city, said Thursday evening he was honored to have served during “some unusual times,” making repeated references to the challenges he faced as commander in chief amid the “fog of war.”

George W. Bush at an armed forces event before leaving office in January. (Photo via Flickr)

For his first domestic post-presidential talk, Bush spoke to and took questions from a highly sympathetic audience of about 2,500 people at an event sponsored by the Economic Development Club of Southwest Michigan, a group that has recently hosted former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top Bush political strategist Karl Rove as speakers, according to organizers.

Bush, en route to Toronto for an event with former President Bill Clinton, flew to Michigan on a jet furnished by Whirlpool Corp., which is headquartered here.

“At least you gave me a chance to get out of the house and come to southwest Michigan,” he told the mostly older, white audience from an area in and around Benton Harbor, one of the state’s poorest cities.

During his remarks, Bush did not mention Michigan’s feeble economy or the dominant news story scaring the state: a General Motors bankruptcy, a possibility that now seems all but certain to become reality very soon.

The former president reminisced about his time in the White House and seemed at ease and at times, waxed philosophical talking about his family, telling the audience: “Victory or defeat is nothing without love.”

Torture and tough decisions

Bush spoke without a teleprompter and took questions from the audience and avoided gaffes — for which he is famous — steering clear of any commentary about his successor’s Oval Office performance, which has come under intense fire from Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney.

But the former president spoke indirectly of his administration’s authorization of the use of torture against detainees captured during the War on Terror, avoiding the words “torture” and “abuse.”

“You have to make tough decisions,” Bush said. “They’ve captured a guy who murdered 3,000 citizens … that affected me … They come in and say he may have more information …and we had an anthrax attack … and they say he may have more information. What do you do?“

Bush was firm and defended his record as president: “I will tell you that the information gained saved lives.”

He acknowledged that weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq but said that this was not the only rationale he gave for the 2003 invasion.

Fear of an economic freefall

During last fall’s economic unraveling, Bush said he was forced to “abandon principle,” fearing the nation’s economy could slide into something worse than the Great Depression under his watch.

“You are only really as good as the people you listen to,” Bush said, adding that then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told him that if he did not approve the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the nation’s economy would have quickly crumbled.

“I can’t prove to you that the measures we took averted failure,” he said. “The major culprit was a lack of responsible regulation.”

There need to be regulations, he said, particularly in the housing market.

Bush said he tried to take steps to reign in lending by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but was unable to push reform through Congress.

“Markets obviously sometimes need restraint and oversight,” said the former president.

Predicting his own legacy

Bush appealed to the audience to imagine the stresses he was under during and following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying that he projected calm because he felt it was his duty and he was concerned about the psychology of the nation. But he said that some did not understand the seriousness of the threats faced by the U.S.

He urged people to consider the long view — the United States and Japan were enemies in World War II, he said, but during his administration Japan’s prime minister was a friend and ally, even making a trip to Graceland together.

“Freedom is transformative,” he said. In the future, Bush predicted, people will think back his presidency and say: “Thank God they didn’t lose faith.”

Bush acknowledged that he was in the White House during trying times.

“There is such a thing as the fog of war,” the former president said, mentioned repeatedly that during a crisis it can be difficult to get good information to make the best decisions.

Several questioners thanked Bush for his service and he received passionate applause in response to a question about his legacy, where he said he wanted to be known as “the man who showed up in office and was unwilling to compromise his soul for the sake of popularity.”

Asked about what role religious extremism will play in the future, Bush took the opportunity to state that all mothers want their kids to grow up in peace and that stereotypes are politically convenient, admitting that he didn’t do a good job in changing the political use of stereotypes.