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by Reuters
ADVISERS MADE A "BIG MISTAKE"; CHENEY
"PUGNACIOUS"
Former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford talks with his Chief of Staff
Donald Rumsfeld (L) and Rumsfeld's assistant Richard Cheney (R) in the
Oval Office of the White House in Washington in this April 28, 1975 file
photo. Ford, who took office from an embattled Richard M. Nixon, has
died, according to a statement from his widow on December 26, 2006.
Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Library/David Hume Kennerly/White House
Photograph/Handout
Published on Thursday, December 28, 2006 by Reuters
WASHINGTON - President
George W. Bush and his top advisers made a "big mistake" in their
justification for invading Iraq, Gerald Ford told journalist Bob
Woodward in an interview embargoed until after the former president's
death. Ford, who
died on Tuesday at his home in California at age 93, said he would not
have gone to war, based on what was known publicly at the time, said the
report on The Washington Post Web site on Wednesday.
"I don't think, if I had been president, on the basis of
the facts as I saw them publicly," Ford said, "I don't think I would
have ordered the Iraq war. I would have maximized our effort through
sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer."
In a four-hour tape-recorded interview in July 2004, Ford
"very strongly" disagreed with the justification for the 2003 invasion
of Iraq advocated and carried out by key Bush advisers and veterans of
his own administration -- Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- reported Woodward.
"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake
in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on
weapons of mass destruction," Ford said.
"And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a
mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should
justify what they were going to do."
The Bush administration's initial justification for the
war was that Iraq posed a threat because it had stockpiles of weapons of
mass destruction. None were found.
The interview and a subsequent conversation in 2005 were
done for a future book project, although Ford, who became president in
1974 after Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal, said his
comments could be published any time after his death, Woodward wrote.
Woodward's reporting with fellow Washington Post
journalist Carl Bernstein played a key role in uncovering the Watergate
scandal. Ford was
quoted as saying he understood the theory of "wanting to free people."
But the former president said he was skeptical "whether you can detach
that from the obligation number one, of what's in our national
interest." He
added, "And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around
the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own
national security."
Woodward said Ford fondly recalled his close working
relationship with Cheney and Rumsfeld, while expressing concern about
the policies they pursued in more recent years.
"He (Cheney) was an excellent chief of staff. First
class," Ford said. "But I think Cheney has become much more pugnacious"
as vice president.
According to the article, Ford said he agreed with former
Secretary of State Colin Powell's assertion that Cheney developed a
"fever" about the threat of terrorism and Iraq. "I think that's probably
true." ©
Copyright 2006 Reuters Ltd
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