Former President George W. Bush has no apologies for his actions in Iraq.
Making the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq is a decision Bush will stick by forever, he said on NPR Wednesday morning.
“But yeah, I could argue that we’re much safer without Saddam. And I would argue that the people of Iraq have a better shot at living in a peaceful — a peaceful state,” Bush said when asked if he thinks the U.S. and Iraq are safer without Hussein in power.
“And as I put in the book, the removal of Saddam from Kuwait was the right decision; and the removal of Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision” he said.
Had the U.S. turned a blind eye to the threat of Hussein, Bush said, he could “envision a nuclear-arms race between Iran and Iraq.”
Bush then deflected when asked if and how he would act differently than President Obama and his handling of Islamic terrorists. “One of the things I’m not going to do is second-guess our president. On the other hand, as I put in the book, I hope we deal with [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] firmly,” he said.
When asked what he would say to those attempting to link his actions in Iraq in 2003 with the threat of Islamic terrorists now, Bush replied: “We cannot become isolationists.”
The 43rd president is currently on a media blitz to promote his new book, “41: A Portrait of My Father.”
