Transcript: President Bush, Part 2

Couric's Interview With President Bush

(CBS) 
And so it's a – and so my first answer is on Iraq, the notion that somehow defending ourselves create – is – it's created – made us more vulnerable, just – I just don't agree with it, particularly since the facts are different. In other words, they attacked us before we went to Iraq. Secondly, of course we stand with democracies and our friend Israel. If the United States ever says,"Oh, my goodness, I don't wanna defend democracy because somebody might harm us," we will have lost our soul.

We have a duty to help young democracies. Israel is our ally and a democracy. And, of course, we're gonna stay strong with Israel. And I wanna remind people that it was an unprovoked terrorist attack on that democracy. And the world must see clearly the threats. And any time a democracy is attacked it seems like other democracies ought to rise up to the challenge and – and help defend.

Any time there's a young democracy trying to get moving, it's in our interest to help that young democracy survive. This is a war between extremists who wanna stop the advance of democracy and liberty – versus, you know, democracies and reformers and mothers who want their children to raise up – be raised in – in a peaceful world.

Look – let me just share something with you, what I strongly believe. I believe a mother in America and a mother – a Muslim mother in the Middle East share the same concerns for their children. And that is they want peace. And they want their children to grow up in a hopeful world. That's what I believe. That's why I can say the extremists are in a minority in the Middle East.

And I strongly believe we have a duty to help those who – who recognized that, you know, this – this quagmire, this – this kind of swamp of resentment can be drained by liberty. And it's hard work, but we've done it before. We've done it before.

COURIC: Could it be drained, also, by more diplomacy?

BUSH: We're doing – we got a lot of diplomacy going on, you know? And diplomacy – is always the first choice for a president. The use of the military has gotta be the last choice of an American president. I – you know, committing troops is a – is not only a tough decision, it's a painful decision 'cause I fully understand the consequences, as have other presidents who preceded me who's committed troops. And so we've used diplomacy and will continue to use diplomacy to try to achieve objectives. But sometimes diplomacy just didn't work in the end.

COURIC: They're gonna kill me for this follow-up, but if you – if you believe diplomacy is the first option, some might question why we're not having more unilateral talks with our enemies, say, Syria, Iran, North Korea.

BUSH: Yeah. The reason why is because you want to have there – you want there to be effective diplomacy. Diplomacy for the sake of diplomacy doesn't achieve objectives. I – my diplomacy, our diplomatic efforts, ably led by Condi Rice, I might add, are aimed at achieving objectives. And the objective with Iran is we want the Iranians to understand it's not just America who objects. The world objects to the idea of the Iranians having the knowledge and/or having a nuclear weapon.

And so it's a – you know, the ideo– you know, somebody saying, "Well, if you just would sit down to … "look, we've tried that, and it didn't work with North Korea. It failed. And so the American people need to expect the president to do things that will be effective and to achieve certain results. And it – unfortunately– diplomacy takes – requires a certain degree of patience. Obviously it's not gonna happen overnight. And – I – I am a – I am – I am convinced that we can achieve objectives through – diplomacy. And I certainly hope so, and we'll work that way.

COURIC: I know you care so much about the soldiers in Iraq. And when we told some of them we had an opportunity to speak with you, almost all of them said, "Would you please ask the President of the United States when can we come home?"

BUSH: Mmm. And the answer is when the mission is done. When your commanders decide you can. You know, it's interesting you said that. It's – I get a little different response from the soldiers I meet, you know? I – frankly, I've never had one say that.

In fact, they've all said, "I'm honored to serve the country. I understand what we're doing. I'm proud to be a volunteer." And – you know, I can't tell you how great the military is. It's – it's such a proud – group of people, dedicated to protecting this country and doing its duty.

COURIC: Well, Mr. President, thank you so much for your time.

BUSH: Good luck.

COURIC: I'm really grateful. Thank you. Thank you.

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Click here to read Part I of this transcript.

[wissam4]

I always dreamed of studying in the USA, I even applied for this year's Medical program; but I'm not sure if I'll ever go there, to a country that doesn't respect me, my people and our freedom, freewill and independence.
Mr. Bush, Blair and Ms. EuroRussia, the MidEast problems can be resolved easily by making an independent state of Palestine according to the UN resolutions (the borders of 1967), return the millions of Palestinian refugees home, COMPLETE nuclear and mass destruction weapon removal of the region. These are the main points, and once there is peace there would be no need for extremism (historically proven) and about oil don't worry it'll finish in the next 100 years at max so spend the US citizen much earned money on altrenative energy resources rather than...
Ooops, I forgot that you don't want peace in our region, as this would compromise your occupation and makes you consider us as people.
(comment ends)

[wissam4]

2. When talking about Islam extremism, he must remember that americans made these groups in Afghanistan and asked their "moderate Islamic" ally which is Saudi Arabia to give the power, money and weapon to fight soviets in Afghanistan. Contrary to what Bush said that extremists are a minority in the Middle East it's not the case anymore, they are increasing in popularity day after day in the Sunni communities because they represent the only hope left for a "dignified" life as the "moderate" regimes in KSA, Jordan, Egypt,... are oppressing their people with US approval. I'm a Lebanese Christian so I'm afraid that this "war on terrorism" is like another crusade, afterwhich Eastern Christians will lose and the bed of christianity would have no more christians in it (israel is making for instance a cleansing of christians off Jerusalem whose number now barely flares the 2000 from a 70% at the beginning of the past century).
3. When talking about Iran's goal to acquire nuclear energy, Bush tells us a fairy tail about pure good and pure evil. Why does he allow israel to have not simply nuclear power but a full range nuclear weapons? Isn't israel a state just like Iran built on a fanatic religious idea? Doesn't it treat Arabs in it as second degree citizens? But that's a democratic state, it's all virtuous even if crimes against humanity are made everyday, Bush would say that it's for the greater good. When was the first instance of evil breeding good?!
(Part 2 ends, to be continued)

[wissam4]

I'm from Lebanon the MidEast and when I read the interview with George Bush, I saw the same erroneous look at the region and its people. I'm not saying that the American administration doesn't know the reality but it simply changes it to its own goals which are far from fighting extremism and closer to breeding some. I'm going to give a few representative points that show how the American administration breeds terrorism and extremism in our region:
1. History and historical events don't account for the american analyses. For example, when talking about israel nobody mentions that its rise (by european Jewish settlers killing and displacing Palestinians from their homes in 1948 and subsequent aggressive actions and "ideology" - simply review the Talmud that mentions israel must extend from the Euphrates to the Nile) and continuous aggression on neighboring countries is the major cause of instability. When Bush said "And I wanna remind people that it was an unprovoked terrorist attack on that democracy [israel]", he simply forgot that israel was breaching the Lebanese borders every day of every year by sea and by air, it still holds Lebanese prisoners, it infiltrated repeatedly commando and spy forces... and Lebanon is a democracy from 1920 by the way.
(part 1 ends, to be continued)

[deeeeekay]

Favourite line: when Bush says "one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." !!!!

Yes, George, that's why we didn't want you going into Iraq in the first place!!!! There was no connection, and still isn't, unless you want to consider the insurgency and civil war there as "terrorism". But hey, even if you could twist them into the definition of "terrorism" (which you can't), then wouldn't you have created terrorism yourself in order to now justify occupying the country to fight it?

[artm72]

President Bush took the oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" not "the people of the United States". President Bush consistantly fails to recognize this.

The people of the United States, our country and our way of life are far better protected by the Constitution than by any man or his appointed cabal. That is why our Constitution has facilitated the development of a great nation and that is why our President should be made to obey it or face impeachment.