1. George Bernard Shaw, a man of great wit and wisdom, once said: "When you read a biography remember that the truth is never fit for publication." Readers interested in memoirs as a vehicle for absolution may be disappointed by Bush's offering, which has already been widely excerpted .
Moreover,it has now become increasingly popular for ExPresidents to publish memoirs or biographies posssibly with a view to explain their many a controversial and other decisions or criticise other powerful personalities. Obviously it would appear the real intend is to make some money through this self publicity.
Decision Points is the extraordinary memoir of America’s 43rd president. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, George W. Bush offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life.
In this age of Twitter and Facebook, no detail about the life of any celebrity, let alone the president of the United States, is too small or irrelevant to publish. Hell, even the Queen of England has become a twittering narcissist who launched her own Facebook page just recently - presumably to compete with the likes of Lady Gaga in either flaunting or trading on their celebrity.
This is why presidential memoirs can be little more these days than a regurgitation of what has already been churned through the 24/7 news and gossip mill. For example, famed reporter Bob Woodward of the Washington Post has already written such detailed articles (and even a book) on Obama’s presidency that one could be forgiven the impression that he has been sitting on the president’s left shoulder since day one.
2. Yet somehow this former president has managed to publish a memoir that is generating a lot of buzz for what appears to be a refreshing take on his presidency. And nothing demonstrates this quite like the (initial) impression it made on his most celebrated critic, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times""In his deftly crafted and utterly selective new memoir, W. is the president we all wished him to be: compassionate, bipartisan, funny, charming, instinctive, independent, able to admit and learn from mistakes - and a good dad, who sang his twin girls the Yale fight song as a lullaby.
Heck, after I finished reading it, I was ready to vote for the guy…
But when I look at the sad eyes of President Obama, buried alive with his party beneath the heedless decisions and reckless spending and tax cuts of his predecessor, I snap out of it. ""
(NY Times, November 11, 2010) "
3. George W. Bush book begins with an anecdote about his wife persuading him to give up drinking by pushing him to decide whether he preferred booze to fatherhood.
The book opens with the scene and him (MR BUSH) questioning whether he loved booze more than his wife, Laura. He said he realized he had an addictive personality and quit drinking cold turkey.
That act set him on the path to the presidency, Bush said in his address to a wind energy convention in downtown Dallas.
As he mentioned the book is less autobiography and more an analysis of key decisions in his life, both before and after he was elected president. Topics will include the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the troop surge in Iraq, his responses to terrorists attacks and Hurricane Katrina and the financial meltdown.
The book is written thematically, not chronologically. This is important because it gives the book a much different flavor than one that is written month by month, and year by year. This book was not ghost written.
Each of the 14 chapters deals with a "decision point" in Bush's life and presidency, when he had to bang his fist on the desk and do something big, something statesmanlike, or hide under the desk and consign America to eternal shame - the greatest possible sin for a patriotic American, as Bush makes clear in almost every chapter.
The highlights of Bush's memoirs are 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Hurricane Katrina, and the Wall Street crash and the ensuing global financial crisis.
4. In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings readers inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century.
Bush writes with great credibility, and a welcome absence of histrionics, about his slow-motion turn toward faith. There was no fiery epiphany. There was a growing comfort with the calming release of prayer, a gradual appreciation of the moral truths contained in the Bible.
There were doubts too. "If you haven't doubted, you probably haven't thought very hard about what you believe," he writes. And that principle is very much in evidence when he makes the first major decision of his presidency, in favor of federal funding for research on existing stem-cell lines but not for raiding frozen embryos - potential lives, he believes - to harvest their cells.
The presidential memoir is among the more dreadful of literary forms. Most of them are far too long, and suffocating for the heavy woolen tone of false modesty that swaddles the egomania at the heart of the matter . They are defensive, evasive and stiff. Bush's effort is all that, but better than most. It reads well. The anecdotes are occasionally revealing. There is emotion, and it is real. The pace is brisk enough to delude the unwary reader into a suspension of disbelief at first, but gradually the weakness of this chatty strategy becomes clear: Bush breezes through fundamental and earth-shattering decisions without slowing down to acknowledge their moral complexity. At the most important moments of his presidency - most notably, the decision to go to war in Iraq - he refuses to honestly consider opposing points of view or see the long-term, ancillary effects of what he is deciding.
5) In the book,
Bush never stops to wonder if, maybe, his team should have spent more time focusing on al-Qaeda before Sept. 11 - as the outgoing Clinton national-security team had strongly suggested - or whether he should have taken more seriously the infamous Aug. 6, 2001, memo from the CIA warning of an al-Qaeda attack on the homeland.
And later, he never stops to wonder if the U.N. inspectors, whom Saddam Hussein had allowed back into Iraq, were not finding weapons of mass destruction because, maybe, uh, the WMD didn't exist. And still later, he expresses shock at the Abu Ghraib abuses without ever admitting - or, perhaps, finding out - that practices like enforced nudity, the use of dogs and stress positions had become common.
And of course he never acknowledges the subsequent reporting, by multiple news outlets, that proved Abu Ghraib was different from other interrogation sites only in that photos were taken.
In a particularly appalling moment, Bush simply decides to permit waterboarding enemy detainees because, as he told Matt Lauer, "the lawyer said it was legal."
6 . President Bush writes honestly and directly about his flaws and mistakes, as well as his accomplishments reforming education, treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, and safeguarding the country amid chilling warnings of additional terrorist attacks. He also offers intimate new details on his decision to quit drinking, discovery of faith, and relationship with his family.
A groundbreaking new brand of memoir, Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on one of the most consequential eras in American history – and the man at the center of events. A few excepts are reproduced here :
a)This excerpt conveys the emotions Bush felt in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the decision to go to war in Iraq.
President Bush stands with firefighter Bob Beck at the World Trade Center in New York, three days after the 9/11 attacks. (Doug Mills / AP)
9/11
The Secret Service wanted to get me to Air Force One, and fast. As the motorcade charged down Florida Route 41, I called Condi from the secure phone in the limo. She told me there had been a third plane crash, this one into the Pentagon. I sat back in my seat and absorbed her words. My thoughts clarified: The first plane could have been an accident. The second was definitely an attack. The third was a declaration of war.
My blood was boiling. We were going to find out who did this, and kick their ass. ...
... I stepped into the presidential cabin and asked to be alone. I thought about the fear that must have seized the passengers on those planes and the grief that would grip the families of the dead. So many people had lost their loved ones with no warning. I prayed that God would comfort the suffering and guide the country through this trial. I thought of the lyrics from one of my favorite hymns, “God of Grace and God of Glory”: “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of this hour.”
While my emotions might have been similar to those of most Americans, my duties were not. There would be time later to mourn. There would be an opportunity to seek justice. But first I had to manage the crisis. We had suffered the most devastating surprise attack since Pearl Harbor. An enemy had struck our capital for the first time since the War of 1812. In a single morning, the purpose of my presidency had grown clear: to protect our people and defend our freedom that had come under attack ...
... The collapse of the towers magnified the catastrophe. Fifty thousand people worked in the buildings on a typical business day. Some had been evacuated, but I wondered how many were left. Thousands? Tens of thousands? I had no idea. But I was certain that I had just watched more Americans die than any president in history.
I kept up-to-date on the latest developments by calling Dick and Condi in the PEOC (Presidential Emergency Operations Center). We tried to establish an open line, but it kept dropping. ...
... When we did receive information, it was often contradictory and sometimes downright wrong. I was experiencing the fog of war. There were reports of a bomb at the State Department, a fire on the National Mall, a hijacked Korean airliner bound for the United States, and a call-in threat to Air Force One. The caller had used the plane’s code name, Angel, which few people knew. The most bizarre report came when I was informed of a high-speed object flying toward our ranch in Crawford. All of this information later proved to be false. But given the circumstances, we took every report seriously.
One report I received proved true. A fourth plane had gone down somewhere in Pennsylvania. “Did we shoot it down, or did it crash?” I asked Dick Cheney. Nobody knew. I felt sick to my stomach. Had I ordered the death of those innocent Americans?.
George W. Bush
Presidential hopeful George W. Bush waves to a crowd of supporters gathered in Kentucky on July 29, 2000. Bush lost the New Hampshire primary to Sen. John McCain but rebounded to claim the Republican nomination for president in 2000. (Timothy)
Bush wins in 2000
George W. Bush takes the presidential oath of office on Jan. 20, 2001.
The president's daughters Jenna and Barbara stand at his side along with their mother Laura. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore are seen standing on the right. (Doug Mills / AP)
Troops sent to Afghanistan
(Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld watches television as President Bush announces that U.S. troops are engaging terrorists in Afghanistan on Oct. 7,) 2001. Bush sent troops into Afghanistan to hunt for Osama bin Laden and other terrorists linked to the 9/11 attacks.
(David Hume Kennerly / Getty Images
Wanted: Dead or alive
Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri are seen at an undisclosed location in this television image broadcast on Oct. 7, 2001. Bin Laden praised God for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. In the days following the attack, President Bush named bin Laden the prime suspect in the 9/11
b )Iraq
On Wednesday, March 19, 2003, I walked into a meeting I had hoped would not be necessary.
The National Security Council had gathered in the White House Situation Room, a nerve center of communications equipment and duty officers on the ground floor of the West Wing. The top center square of the secure video screen showed General Tommy Franks sitting with his senior deputies at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. In the other five boxes were our lead Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force, and Special Operations commanders. Their counterparts from the British Armed Forces and Australian Defense Forces joined as well.
I asked each man two questions: Do you have everything you need to win? And are you comfortable with the strategy?
Each commander answered affirmatively.
Tommy spoke last. “Mr. President,” the commanding general said, “this force is ready.”
Victoria's Secret angels glide down runway
I turned to Don Rumsfeld. “Mr. Secretary,” I said, “for the peace of the world and the benefit and freedom of the Iraqi people, I hereby give the order to execute Operation Iraqi Freedom. May God bless the troops.”
Tommy snapped a salute. “Mr. President,” he said, “may God bless America.”
As I saluted back, the gravity of the moment hit me.
For more than a year, I had tried to address the threat from Saddam Hussein without war. We had rallied an international coalition to pressure him to come clean about his weapons of mass destruction programs. We had obtained a unanimous United Nations Security Council resolution making clear there would be serious consequences for continued defiance. We had reached out to Arab nations about taking Saddam into exile. I had given Saddam and his sons a final forty-eight hours to avoid war. The dictator rejected every opportunity. The only logical conclusion was that he had something to hide, something so important that he was willing to go to war for it.
I knew the consequences my order would bring. I had wept with widows of troops lost in Afghanistan. I had hugged children who no longer had a mom or a dad. I did not want to send Americans into combat again. But after the nightmare of 9/11, I had vowed to do what was necessary to protect the country. Letting a sworn enemy of America refuse to account for his weapons of mass destruction was a risk I could not afford to take.
Bush quotes his letter to his dad and the reply he received :
"Dear Dad, ...
At around 9:30 a.m., I gave the order to SecDef to execute the war plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom. In spite of the fact that I had decided a few months ago to use force, if need be, to liberate Iraq and rid the country of WMD, the decision was an emotional one. ...
I know I have taken the right action and do pray few will lose life. Iraq will be free, the world will be safer. The emotion of the moment has passed and now I wait word on the covert action that is taking place.
I know what you went through.
Love,
George
A few hours later, his reply came across the fax:
Dear George,
Your handwritten note, just received, touched my heart. You are doing the right thing. Your decision, just made, is the toughest decision you’ve had to make up until now. But you made it with strength and with compassion. It is right to worry about the loss of innocent life be it Iraqi or American. But you have done that which you had to do.
Maybe it helps a tiny bit as you face the toughest bunch of problems any President since Lincoln has faced: You carry the burden with strength and grace. ...
Remember Robin’s words ‘I love you more than tongue can tell.’
Well, I do.
Devotedly,
Dad"
c )IRAN:
Bush, in the 497-page Decision Points, , writes of Iran: "I directed the Pentagon to study what would be necessary for a strike." He adds: "This would be to stop the bomb clock, at least temporarily."
Such an attack would almost certainly have produced a conflagration in the Middle East that could have seen Iran retaliating by blocking oil supplies and unleashing militias and sympathisers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
Bush also discussed with his national security team either an air strike or a covert special forces raid on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility at the request of Israel.
d) Bush admits mistakes, defends decisions
Former President George W. Bush admits in his memoir “Decision Points” that his 2003 “Mission Accomplished” speech and his demeanor in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were some of the professional and personal mistakes that hede. In his first one-on-one television interview since leaving the White House, the former president sat down with Matt Lauer and opened up about his regrets.
Virginia Sherwood / NBC
(Matt Lauer continues his conversation with President George W. Bush at the First United Methodist Church in Midland, Texas, during Bush's first one-on-one TV interview since leaving the Oval Office. )
Bush looked back on May 1, 2003, when he stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier under a banner saying “Mission Accomplished” and declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, as a statue of Saddam Hussein was brought crashing down.
“No question it was a mistake,” Bush told Matt Lauer of the scene that still reverberated seven years later as the war raged on. “If I had to do it all over again, which you don't get to do when you're the president, you know, I’d have said, ‘Good going, men and women, great mission’ or something.”
Bush said that he was caught up in an “exhilarating moment,” and writes in the book that he should have listened the advice he gave others.
“Shortly thereafter I said, ‘Hey — we’re not doing any victory dances,’ because I knew full well the task at hand was gonna be very difficult,” he told Lau
Pivotal moments in the Bush presidency
He also wrote of many errors involving the Iraq campaign and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction there, despite numerous intelligence reports pointing to their existence.
“No one was more shocked or angry than I was when we didn’t find the weapons. I had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do,” Bush writes.
“Was there ever any consideration of apologizing to the American people?” Lauer asked.
“I mean, apologizing would basically say the decision was a wrong decision,” Bush replied. “And I don’t believe it was the wrong decision. I thought the best way to handle this was to find out why. And what went wrong. And to remedy it.”
‘Out of touch’ with Katrina victims
Blamed by many Americans for a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Bush said his initial mistake was failing to communicate his concern for the storm’s victims, many of whom were black.
He said he should not have done an Air Force One flyover of New Orleans while much of the city was under water. “Huge mistake,” he told Lauer.
The photo of Bush peering out the window of Air Force One at the storm-ravaged region made him look, in his words, “detached and uncaring.” Bush told Lauer that he did not land because he did not want to divert police officers helping hurricane victims to providing security for him instead.
He also looked back at the words that would come to represent even more of a disconnect with Katrina victims. “Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job,” he told then-FEMA director Michael Brown, as images of horrifying destruction were broadcast and subsequent reports criticized FEMA’s handling of the disaster.
“I tend to boost people’s spirits during difficult times. Basically what I was saying …‘Good job. You’re doing what we expect you to do,’ ” Bush explained to Lauer.
“That’s not what we were seeing,” Lauer interjected.
“Yeah … as president sometimes your intentions get overwhelmed by perception. And it turns out that — those words became a club for people to say, ‘Wait, this guy’s out of touch.’ ”
Accusations from critics that he was racist because of the response to Katrina “was the worst moment of my presidency. I feel the same way today,” he writes.
In his interview with Bush, Lauer recalls singer Kanye West’s unexpected deviation from the script during an NBC telethon asking for help for Katrina victims. When it was West’s turn to speak, he said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
“That [means] ‘he’s a racist,’ ” Bush tells Lauer. “And I didn’t appreciate it then. I don’t appreciate it now ... I resent it, it’s not true, and it was one of the most disgusting moments in my presidency.”
“You’re not saying that the worst moment in your presidency was watching the misery in Louisiana,” Lauer says. “You’re saying it was when someone insulted you because of that.”
“No — that — and I also make it clear that the misery in Louisiana affected me deeply as well,” Bush replies. “There’s a lot of tough moments in the book. And it was a disgusting moment, pure and simple.”
Abu Ghraib and Rumsfeld
Bush recalled his immediate reaction to seeing photos in 2004 that showed American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison mistreating and humiliating inmates.
“[I was] sick to my stomach,” Bush said. “Not only have they mistreated prisoners, they had disgraced the U.S. military and stained our good name.” Bush explained that he felt “blindsided” because he “wasn’t aware of the graphic nature of the pictures until later on.”
When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld twice offered his resignation, Bush said he considered it.
“I seriously considered accepting his advice,” he writes in the book. “I knew it would send a powerful signal to replace the leader of the Pentagon after such a grave mistake. But a big factor held me back — there was no obvious replacement for Don.”
When Lauer questioned the logic, Bush explained, “We’re in the middle of war and if I couldn’t have found somebody quickly to replace Secretary Rumsfeld, you’d have been on TV saying, ‘There’s a vacuum at the Pentagon.It’s sending terrible signals to our troops.’ ”
Bush told Lauer that he still thinks he made the right decision, keeping Rumsfeld on for two more years.
‘Bush’s brain’
Lauer asked the former president point-blank for his thoughts on rumors that senior adviser Karl Rove was “Bush’s brain” and that Vice President Dick Cheney really ran the White House. “Did it sting?” Lauer asked.
“No, no it didn’t sting at all because the so-called ‘Bush’s brain’ and Dick Cheney knew full well that one wasn’t my brain and the other one wasn’t running the White House,” Bush said, laughing. “Look, when you’re the president, there’s all kinds of things said about us. I mean, it’s just the nature of the job.”
During the entire postwar period, not a single U.S. president has been bold enough to produce memoirs with real historical, not to mention artistic, value. Which isn't to say that all presidential memoirs are irredeemably bad. There are times in Bush's memoirs when you can hear his voice, his distinct style of speaking, but for the most part the writing is, in the words of one American reviewer, "competent, readable and flat." It will be an interesting read for researchers of the U.S. presidency and presidential psychology, but that's it. Otherwise, it is surprisingly boring.
Bush's book, released recently, sold at least 222,000 copies through its first day of sale, according to the Crown Publishing Group, and topped the best-seller list of Amazon.com even before release. But his standing in the conservative book club reflects an ongoing hesitation among some of his supposed core followers
Bush's memoirs are more about the present and the future. There is no doubt about that, especially considering that they were published after the U.S. midterm elections on November 2, in which Republicans took back the House of Representatives and won most of the governorships up for grabs, shifting the country substantially to the right. Bush's legacy is still very much alive. Barack Obama inherited two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the worst recession since WWII, and enormous deficits from Bush and his Republican allies in Congress.
In "Decision Points," Bush strongly backs his fiscal priorities. He refers to major tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 and his efforts to set up overhaul social security, a longtime conservative goal. He includes charts showing reductions in spending and debt as a percentage of the overall domestic economy. He objected to "wasteful earmarks" proposed by Congress, but writes that he lacked a line-item veto — another conservative priority — to prevent.
But he also writes proudly of 'No Child Left Behind' and his ability to work with a liberal champion, Sen. Edward Kennedy. Bush's book has respectful words for President Obama, finding him well-prepared and thoughtful at a financial crisis summit in 2008 that had been requested by Obama's rival for the presidency, Sen. John McCain.
While Limbaugh and others have openly rooted for Obama to fail, Bush told Oprah Winfrey in an interview that aired this week, "I want our president to succeed. I love our country
And that's frankly a little more fun."
Economic stewardship
But Bush defended his memoir, saying it is more of an explanation than an excuse. About the economic downturn, Bush wrote that his administration saw the housing crisis coming but “powerful forces on Capitol Hill” blocked its efforts to put limits on the freewheeling lending practices that caused it.
Noting that 2.6 million jobs were lost, the bank system nearly collapsed, the housing system did collapse and the country fell into the deepest recession since the Great Depression after the stock market crash of 1929,
Lauer asked Bush, “How much of the blame for that should be laid at your feet and your policies?”
Bush acknowledged that his administration deserved some of the blame for its handling of the economic downturn, but said Congress could have slowed or prevented it. Bush said his economic advisers saw the approaching housing crisis, but Congress refused to restrict the government-backed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae mortgage buyers.
“My conscience is clear when it came to recognizing an impending problem,” Bush said. “Anytime you are in power and there is a problem, you are going to get the blame; I realize that.”
While accepting some blame, however, Bush said lawmakers could have and should have done more to prevent the housing bubble. If Congress had, the Wall Street bailout might not have been necessary, he said.
“The hardest thing for me was not whether or not blame was assigned,” Bush said. “The hardest thing for me was to explain to hardworking America why taxpayer money was being used to prop up [Wall Street].”
Critics are mixed about George W. Bush's memoir, but the former president has received a rave from a fellow White House alumnus, Bill Clinton.
"'Decision Points' is well-written, and interesting from start to finish. I think people of all political stripes should read it," Clinton said in a statement released Friday. "George W. Bush also gives readers a good sense of what it's like to be president, to take the responsibilities of the office seriously, do what you think is right, and let history be the judge. The book may not change the minds of those who disagree with decisions President Bush made, but it will help you to understand better the forces that molded him, and the convictions that drove him to make those decisions."
Kanye West came across like a turrets sufferer when he suddenly blurted out the following during a telethon for Katrina relief
George Bush doesn’t care about black people.
(NBC, September 2, 2005)
Therefore, it speaks volumes about Bush’s racial sensitivity that he dignified Kanye’s outburst by writing the following about it in his memoir
Five years later I can barely write those words without feeling disgust. I faced a lot of criticism as President. I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all time low. "
It’s an indication of how rabid and unrelenting his liberal critics are, however, that they are spewing indignation at Bush for making this understandably human admission. Never mind that their mob-like criticisms are premised on the plainly ideological inference that this admission proves Bush cared more about Kanye calling him a racist than he did about the thousands of troops who died in Iraq or the thousands of people who died in New Orleans (in Katrina’s wake).
Whereas, given the legacy of racism in America, Bush should be commended for feeling so strongly about being unfairly tagged with this epithet that he reiterated last week - during an interview with Matt Lauer to promote his memoir - that:
"I didn’t appreciate it then. I don’t appreciate it now. It’s one thing to say, ‘I don’t appreciate the way he’s handled his business.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘This man’s a racist.’ I resent it, it’s not true, and it was one of the most disgusting moments in my presidency. "
Then, of course, there’s the inconvenient truth that he has done more for the Dark Continent of Africa than any president in U.S. history, including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama … so far.
‘Actually, today I had to defend the Bush Administration in France again. They refuse to accept, because of their political ideology, that he has actually done more than any American President for Africa. But it’s empirically so.’
(Bush has done more for Africa than any other president, The iPINIONS Journal, June 20, 2005)
So the take away from his memoir is that you can call George W. Bush a Daddy’s boy, a dunce, or even a warmonger; although, he might remind you that, if critics are to be believed, he shared the latter two traits with none other than former President Ronald Reagan. Just don’t call him a racist.
Think whatever you will of his policies, but this memoir acquits Bush in many respects as an essentially good and decent man.
konthai
REFERENCES
1.Today Book News Article by Today Book News by MSNBC
2/ Anthony L. Hall in Ipinions Journal
3.. Global Research Articles by Andrei Fedyashin
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