Thom's view of George W. Bush's responses when Brian Williams asked him about the war in Iraq.

Liar in Chief, September 1 2006

George W. Bush in his interview with Brian Williams - Brian Williams the guy who says he listens Rush Limbaugh every day 'cause it's his duty as an American - Brian Williams asking George W. Bush about the war in Iraq:

WILLIAMS: When you take a tour of the world, a lot of Americans e-mail me with their fears that, you know, some days they just wake up and it just feels to them like the end of the world is near. And you go from North Korea to Iran, to Iraq, to Afghanistan, and you look at how things have changed, how Americans are viewed overseas, if that is important to you. Do you have any moments of doubt that we fought the wrong war, that there's something wrong with the perception of America overseas?

BUSH: Well those are two different questions, did we fight the wrong war, and absolutely -- I have no doubt -- the war came to our shores, remember that. We had a foreign policy that basically said, let's hope calm works. And we were attacked.

WILLIAMS: But those weren't Iraqis.

BUSH : No, they were, they weren't, no, I agree, they weren't Iraqis, nor did I ever say Iraq ordered that attack, but they're a part of, Iraq is part of the struggle against the terrorists. Now, these terrorists have made it clear they want us to leave Iraq…

No, number 1: Iraq is part of the struggle against the terrorists. No, Iraq was sitting there minding its own damned business. I mean, about as far as it got was Saddam Hussein would send a $20,000 check to the families of suicide bombers in Israel which is reprehensible, but it's nothing compared to the amount of money that was going out of Saudi Arabia for suicide bombers and Wahhabists and radical extremists in the Palestinian territories in Israel. I mean, you want to, and by the way, who were the, of what country were the people who were flying the planes, at least according to the official story? 14 of the 18 of them or 19 of them the last I checked were Saudis; not a single Iraqi on any of those planes. So, number one.

And number two, Bush says, 'Oh, these are terrorists trying to kick us out of Iraq'. No, they're Iraqis trying to kick us out of Iraq. That's why they are referred to as insurgents. They're standing up and they're saying, "We don't want our country occupied, thank you very much. Bush continues with his lies:

BUSH : "… prematurely, and why is it? Because they want a safe haven?

Oh, now, here we get into what Sigmund Freud referred to as projection. This is where you take your own motives, your own behaviours, and you project them onto other people; you assume that other people are doing what you would be doing. George W. Bush:

BUSH : Now, these terrorists have made it clear they want us to leave Iraq prematurely, and why is it? Because they want a safe haven? They'd love to get a hold of oil. They have territorial ambitions. And no, I think fighting this war is the absolute right thing to do.

Hmm hmmm. So they want a safe haven? It's called their country! Of course they want a safe haven; they want to live in their own damn country. But Bush would like a safe haven. They want the oil? Well yeah, it's their oil, it's their country. And they're looking at us and saying, "Why won't you let us have our oil?" And, "They have territorial ambitions". Yeah, I think they'd like to keep their territory, thank you very much. Why is it that the U.S. embassy; 22 buildings, 107 or 109 square acres being built inside the Green Zone on the border of the Euphrates River - the most valuable land in the entire country of Iraq, given to us as a gift by the government that we helped install - being built without Iraqi labor, the only project that is on time and on budget? The Iraqis looking at this going, "There's something really wrong here". There's something really wrong here. Bush continues; Brian Williams actually first:

WILLIAMS: Do you see the argument that some on the left make that the war in Iraq has amounted…

Some on the left make? See again, this is the kind of question that you get out of somebody who thinks that listening to Rush Limbaugh is your duty as an American citizen. But, "Some on the left make", come on, you've got generals on the right making this. The left; there is no left in America, there's the radical middle. I'm sorry. The left in America, the old line communists and the old Marxists and Marxist socialists, they're gone. There's a few of them still around, you know, fighting the good fight, but by large there's no left in America; there's the center.

The vast majority of Americans want some very simple things: a clean environment, a country that is not destroying the biosphere by producing global local warming. They want Social Security that is safe. They want the protection of a union in the workplace so that they can have some democracy in the workplace. They want to know that they have a pension and that they have security in their old age. They want national health insurance. Fundamental things 70, 80, 90% of Americans will consistently tell you that's they want. That's not the left, that's us, that's America.

Brian Williams should have said, "Americans say", or "Some in the military say", but "Some on the left"? Come on.

WILLIAMS: Do you see the argument that some on the left make that the war in Iraq has amounted to a colossal recruitment poster in the fundamentalist world?

BUSH: No, I don't see that at all. The fundamentalist world attacked the United States and killed 3,000 people…

It wasn't the fundamentalist world. You know, if the official story was right, it was Osama bin Laden. It was this one guy who wants to be the reincarnation of Saladin. He wants to be a big deal, just like Tim McVeigh wanted to be a big deal. He wanted all the right wing Christian nationalists behind him. He thought, "We'll get them all together, we'll take over this country". McVeigh had read the book "The Turner Diaries" in which the good right wing protestant white non-Catholic Christians bombed a federal building and the government so over-reacted by clamping down on and doing away with constitutional protections and creating Guantanamo Bay concentration camps and putting people in them, that Americans stood up and said, "We're not going to take this, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more". And the Americans stood up and fought back; at least the good white gun-owning Protestant Americans did. And in the process they killed all the African Americans, they killed the Jews, they killed the Asian Americans, they killed the Catholics, and all that was left was the good god-fearing white American Protestants and their admiring women and maybe a few Mormons, I don't know. That was it in the book, "The Turner Diaries" that Tim McVeigh read and took to heart, and he thought on the anniversary of Waco that that would be the perfect day to start the revolution in America.

Osama bin Laden wanted to do the same thing; he wanted to be a big shot, and which was exactly what he got. George Bush gave him exactly what he wanted. He wanted to get away, he wanted to get out of Afghanistan - Bush let him out of Afghanistan. He wanted to live in Pakistan - he's living, right. He wanted to be safe - he's safe.Here we are, five years on, Osama bin Laden has gotten everything he wants. And frankly, I would say, so has George Bush. Coincidence or conspiracy? I'll leave that up to you.

BUSH: … before I even thought about removing Saddam Hussein from power.

Oh, they attacked us before you even thought about it and you were thinking about it in '99. You were thinking about it, telling your biographer Mickey Herskowitz about it. According to your Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, your very first cabinet meeting in January of 2001 you were talking about it. See how, the facility, how facile his lies are. This guy, I mean, he just comes up with this stuff. I mean, you know, just so easy. He knew Karl Rove and Richard Armitage were involved in the leak, and:

Bush: And I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official. Now, this is a large administration, and there's a lot of senior officials. I don't have any idea.

Yeah, or, the plane, you know. We all know the first plane was not shown on TV; nobody saw the first plane hit. Here's Bush:

Bush: George, you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack.

'Cause by the way the first plane was filmed by some Spanish or French tourists across the street. The tape didn't come out until the next day. What we all saw was the second plane hit.

Bush: George, you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. And it, I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in…

He's just making this up, making it up.

Bush: … and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on…

Well, obviously.

Bush: … And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. And I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, 'A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack.'

Yeah. Andy Card comes in and says, "There's been a second plane". And he saw the first one. Nobody else saw the first one. None of us saw the first one. It just comes out so easily for him. And we're supposed to believe this guy. We're supposed to have this guy as our president. I don't buy it.

So anyhow, George W. Bush continuing with his little riff here,

Bush: [No, I don't see that at all. The fundamentalist world attacked the United States and killed 3,000 people before I even thought about removing Saddam Hussein from power.] I just don't buy that argument. It is an argument that's not based upon fact.

WILLIAMS: But it's that tie -- it's the story in the paper recently of the kid who joined the National Guard, angry about what they did to us on 9-11, thought he was going to Afghanistan, killed in Iraq.

BUSH: Brian, all I can tell you is, is that we have a volunteer army full of motivated, decent, honorable citizens wearing our uniform and morale is high.

Lie.

BUSH: Morale is really high.

Lie.

BUSH: You talk to the families and you talk to these kids who are fighting for this country, they understand the stakes and they're proud to be doing it. And this country owes them a debt of gratitude.

Yeah, and how many of them are going to stand up to the president of the United States and say, "Sir, you lied us into a war and we're just like really kind of over it"? No, I don't think it's going to happen.