Transcript: President Bush, Part 1

Couric's Interview With President Bush

(CBS) 
COURIC: I was saying it – are you frustrated? And you mentioned the – the positive developments. But certainly you would acknowledge there are a lot of negative things.

BUSH: Absolutely. Starting with the death of innocent people and our soldiers. That's the hardest thing for me. I meet with a lot of the families. And – I do the best I can to cry with them or, you know, laugh with them if they wanna laugh and hug them. One thing most have said to me is "Don't leave before this job gets done." They understand the stakes and so do our soldiers.

And the stakes are these: That if we leave before the job is done, an enemy that has attacked us will be emboldened. Allies and moderate people will wonder where America's soul is. And the inno – and – and – and the notion that freedom can defeat ideo – an ideology of hate will be– dismissed.

And I'm just not gonna let it happen, Katie. I understand the stakes. And– and – look, the key thing for the American people to understand is that we're learning. As the enemy adjusts, we're adjusting. And– that I've given the commanders on the ground the authority necessary to do what it– what it takes to achieve the objective, which is an Iraq that's an ally in the… that can defend itself, sustain itself, and govern itself.

COURIC: Does it concern you, as – as we walk this corridor and see portraits of people like President Reagan, for whom your dad worked as vice-president, some of – your father's close colleagues have criticized the war in Iraq or efforts, particularly Brent Scowcroft, his former National Security Advisor, very publicly saying in 2004: "Iraq is a failing venture."

BUSH: Yeah. Does it bother me? Nah, not really. When you do hard things, people are gonna criticize you. The American people expect me to make decisions based upon principle, to deal with the threats that face our nation – not to worry about criticism. Of course I listen to it. That's part of the job.

COURIC: Conversely, I guess, Mr. President, while people admire so much your ability to adhere to your principles, there is also criticism, as you say, there will always be critics –
BUSH: Yeah. (LAUGHTER)

COURIC: – that – that you're inflexible and that your position doesn't change with changing circumstances.

BUSH: I am inflexible when it comes to making sure we don't get hit again. And you bet I'm gonna remain strong about making sure that the world we leave behind is a more peaceful world. But I – we're constantly changing the tactics necessary to achieve those strategic objectives. There's a difference between strategic thought and tactical action.

And, you know, if I – if I tried to respond to every critic or made decisions based upon every opinion poll – the decision-making process would be pathetic. And – look, I understand people don't agree with war. I didn't wanna be a wartime president. This war came to us. We didn't ask for it.

But the American people expect me to respond, and I'm going to and have and will continue to do. Our – our most important job is to – is to protect this country. And I think a – an important job is to see the world the way it is, as an ideological struggle and work to leave behind a– a better tomorrow for our children, your children.

Now, I would equate this ideological struggle as to the Cold War. And – the question is will we see the stakes clearly? And will we use our influence to help moderate folks defeat radical extremism? And I – my answer is, yeah, I bet the American people and the American governments that follow me will do that. I certainly hope so.

COURIC: Mr. President, you have recently compared Osama bin Laden to Hitler and Lenin. And some – some have said if the situation is so dire and the situation is so serious, why not mobilize the country, call for sacrifice by raising taxes to finance this effort, by reducing our reliance on foreign oil, and by bringing in more troops to Iraq, the overwhelming force necessary to get the job done?

BUSH: Yeah. First of all, I said that – I said that when Osama bin Laden speaks, we better listen carefully to his words. And – and I made it clear that – the intention of al-Qaeda is to drive us out of the Middle East so they can achieve– objectives. And one of the objectives is, you know, control the Middle East and control oil and threaten moderate people. That's what I said.

And I said the world had an opportunity to listen to Hitler and didn't and– had an opportunity to listen to Lenin and didn't. So I– my point was is that when somebody speaks, we'd better listen carefully. And he is a threat. The best way to defeat the man in a team is to have good intelligence, to stay on the offense to get them, dismantle their organizations, and defeat them in the long term by spreading freedom. Now, the – the– this is a ideological struggle that's gonna take a while. And the best way to achieve success is to have a strong economy.

The enemy hit us. They not only killed lives but they also hurt our economy. And I asked Congress to cut the taxes in order to create economic vitality so that we're prosperous, and we are prosperous. And I intend to keep us prosperous. The American people– it's an interesting question. Why don't you get people to sacrifice?

The American people are contributing. They're contributing their hard-earned dollars. They're supporting our troops. People are involved. People want us to win. Very few people want us to leave before the job is done. The question is: Why aren't we winning? I get asked all the time about troops. Remember, this battle is going – this series of battles is going to be fought by more than just American troops. We got NATO troops in Afghanistan. But – and the most important troops will be those in Iraq. We – we can't make Iraq – the Iraqi people say this is something we want. We can help them achieve the country that can govern itself.

And this government of Prime Minister Maliki needs to have an effective Iraqi fighting force to do that. And that's what we're doing. We're training Iraqis as well as going after, you know, targets that – that are threatening – Americans and/or Iraqis.

COURIC: I know that some military experts say that the Iraqi military is almost up to– to full strength, that it's almost been fully trained.

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Click here for Part 2 of this transcript.

[dgn2]

Katie Couric was scowling at the president at times -- did anyone notice THAT?

[mjmurph1]

Weak interview. Bush lied us into Iraq and the media thumped the drum. Now the media owes it to all of America to hold this administration accountable for depleted monies, lives and resources that we need to fight those who actually attacked us.

[ssgatorr]

Katie,

You are doing a wonderful job reporting the news -as bad as it is some of the time.

As far as your closing to the viewers - just a big sincere smile as you always have, along with a closing comment.

It is very difficult to report the awful news and have a great smile.

Is this an interview or just a well-publicized occasion for the president to issue his views unchallenged by any real interrogation of the record? Her gushing opening about "really really" appreciating him "talking to us" tips her hand right off. We need journalists with backbone who will challenge the politicians who want to serve up this kind of pap to the public on TV.

[baddaddy9]

Katie was totally weak - she lobbed lame, softball questions at Bush, and then helped him formulate the answers. Even worse, she didn't follow up when Bush dodged the questions. She's falling down on the job right out of the gate! She's doesn't have what it takes to ask the tough questions and get the answers that we need from our public officials. What a sad joke. All this hype and she's nothing but a blonde Oprah. Soon she'll be asking Kofi Anan and *** Cheney for dating and diet tips! She should go back to the Today Show and leave real journalism to real journalists. She's an embarassment and exactly the wrong thing for the country at this critical juncture in our history. BOO!

[tucker1no]

Wow, where do I start. First off wardrobe - BAD, Really bad. A bright blue mock turtleneck under a dark blazer combined with the skyline behind her.
Second - what was with walking down the hall ways as though Katie just happened to be at the White House and ran into the president and said hey do have a moment to talk about world affairs. After 4 or 5 shots of different hall ways they finally sit down. This is about the state of the United States of America. This is not a casual chit chat. Go in there like hell on wheels and get a good interview. Call him out on questions he can't or won't answer. He stumbled on just about every answer he gave.
Lastly - Katie you need to figure out what to do with your hands and don't cross your arms when you are meeting and introducing the president or anyone else for that matter. You looked very afraid and defensive.

BETTER LUCK ON YOUR NEXT INTERVIEW - I will stick around for one more.

[squance-2009]

I thought that Couric was opinionated on NBC, but she has only gotten worse. And now, CBS has tried to slant this dialog by inserting EVERY um, pause, etc to try and show the President in a bad light. Never have I seen this done before on CBS or any other network. It's the NEWS dummy! We don't need more opinions, just the news as it happens.

Rest assured, you have lost another long time viewer for good.

[gardnerjohn4]

The interview with George W. Bush by Katie Couric, for me, wasn't hard hitting enough. It was scripted.If I wanted to watch puppet theatre I should have TiVOed sesame street and watched that instead.

When the president doesn't answer a question reporters need to hold him accountable.

I think we need to re-examine that this administration has thrown away our civil liberties all in the name of the war on Terror; to spend an hour of television trying to convince people that more has to done is just plain wrong. Our first amendment right to assemble peacefully is being violated by hidden cameras in public places. The patriot act is making it easier to crack down on "suspected terrorist" but what if it is being used to identify peaceful protestors like the NYPD did during Critical Mass in New York. The Patriot Act is a way in which law enforcement can now violate Fourth amendment law. Our constitution is being rewritten without a good honest debate in the media. Instead, we are given tours of facilities that costs the taxpayers billions and for what? It might be more effective to spend billions from the War on Terror on cancer cures or more measures to combat drunk driving or....maybe actually help the victims of Katrina.

Could someone please change the public dialog to when we can impeach this guy?