FORMER US president George W Bush writes in a new memoir that he considered dropping his vice-president, Dick Cheney, from his 2004 re-election ticket, but said he still considers Mr Cheney a steady adviser who helped him achieve his goals.
The memoir, which was leaked to several news outlets in advance of its formal release next Tuesday, details Mr Cheney’s advocacy of war with Iraq. It says he asked Mr Bush at a luncheon whether he was “going to take care of this guy, or not”, referring to then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Mr Bush writes that he still considers the war justified, and believes it left the US safer.
He defends his handling of some of the most intense controversies of his presidency, acknowledging that he personally approved the “waterboarding” of alleged 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a practice President Barack Obama and attorney general Eric Holder have described as torture. “Damn right,” Mr Bush said he told the CIA when they sought his permission.
The book, entitled Decision Points, is focused on key moments in his life, including his decision to stop drinking. He said the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq gave him a “sickening” feeling that persists. – (Washington Post-Bloomberg)