I was surprised to see Helen Thomas get a question in today, but she did and as usual, President Bush was evasive and cut 99oher off repeatedly. She asked him why he really wanted to go to war and he denied that was the case.
Mickey Herskowitz who had struck a deal to ghost write Bush's autobiography said that "He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade·.if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency....read on
He also responded weirdly to this question by a reporter.
Q: Will there come a day, and I'm not asking you when -I'm not asking for a timetable. Will there come a day when there will be no more American forces in Iraq?"
BUSH: That, of course is an objective, and that will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq.
Did he slip up and tell the truth?
Asked if that meant it won't happen on his watch, the president said, "You mean a complete withdrawal? That's a timetable. I can only tell you that I will make decisions on force levels based upon what the commanders on the ground say."
The Martini Republic: Strawmen, Slogans and Shibboleths
E&P has a transcript up also: