Bush on ’60 Minutes’ Highlights Video

AllahPundit has edited President Bush’s appearance on “60 Minutes” last night down to 3:28 of highlights.

Perhaps most interesting is the president’s assertion that the Iraqi people owe us a “great debt of gratitude” for our liberation and that he therefore owes them no apologies for the ensuing mess.

AP wonders, “Why was the president of the United States forced to watch video of the execution on the Internet with the rest of us schmucks? Is our intel in Iraq so poor now that the CIA couldn’t get its own copy from the Iraqi government?” A bit puzzling, to be sure.

FILED UNDER: Iraq War, , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Stormy70 says:

    He could watch it faster, since it was filmed on a cell phone and hit the internet. Info moves fast, why is this concept so hard to grasp? It takes minutes to download anything onto the net.

  2. James Joyner says:

    It takes minutes to download anything onto the net.

    True enough. Still, there was an official video taken at the time that could have been made available to the U.S. government instantaneously, too. The cell phone video was of inferior quality and took 24 hours or so to get on the ‘net.

  3. LJD says:

    …he therefore owes them no apologies for the ensuing mess.

    Not exactly. He was asked if he owed them an apology for not doing a better job. He questioned whether WE didn’t do a better job, or THEY didn’t do a better job.

    Is our intel in Iraq so poor now that the CIA couldn’t get its own copy from the Iraqi government?”

    We didn’t hang him.

    I also heard the following:

    I am your scapegoat for the current situation.
    We are not going to blame our troops.
    Pulling out would be much, much worse.
    We must succeed.

    Some of the things he DID say, left out of the commentary, seem to be the same things he is often criticized for NOT saying.

  4. Anderson says:

    Perhaps most interesting is the president’s assertion that the Iraqi people owe us a “great debt of gratitude” for our liberation and that he therefore owes them no apologies for the ensuing mess.

    Ah. This would be like the great debt of gratitude that Eastern Europe owed the Soviet Union?

  5. Oldcrow says:

    Ah. This would be like the great debt of gratitude that Eastern Europe owed the Soviet Union?
    Posted by Anderson at January 15, 2007 10:57 Permalink

    This statement shows you are a moron. We have given the Iraqi people a democracy how exactly does that compare to 60 years of authoritarian rule? What an ignorant statement!

  6. DC Loser says:

    Oldcrow – not a student of history, are you? Anderson was of course referring to the eternal gratitude the Fraternalist Socialst States of the Warsaw Pact owed the Soviet Union for libertating them from the yoke of Nazi Fascist tyranny. I’m not exactly sure how many percentage of Iraqis right now are feeling a mood of gratitude for the democracy (the messy kind, ala Rummy) we’ve given them.

  7. Oldcrow says:

    I don’t know either but I can tell there are 60% who do feel gratitude but it is probably allot more Link
    And Another