George H.W. Bush Rips Into Dick Cheney And Donald Rumsfeld In New Book

Former President George H.W. Bush has some strong criticism of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in a new biography which will be published later this year.

The book, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey Of George Herbert Walker Bush, was written by Jon Meacham and includes quotes from the 41st President saying that Cheney and Rumsfeld were too hawkish and their harsh stance badly damaged the reputation of the United States.

Bush refers to Cheney by noting:

“I don’t know, he just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with.”

Cheney served as Secretary of Defense for the elder Bush from 1989-1993.

While still on the topic of Cheney, Bush said:

“The reaction (to Sept. 11), what to do about the Middle East. Just iron-ass. His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East.”

But the harshest comments are reserved for Rumsfeld, of whom Bush comments:

“I don’t like what he did, and I think it hurt the President. I’ve never been that close to him anyway. There’s a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks. He’s more kick ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that. Rumsfeld was an arrogant fellow.”

For their part, neither Cheney or Rumsfeld would comment on the revelations in the upcoming book. Might that be because they both know what the former President is saying is absolutely true?

As we are already seeing and will become even clearer in coming years, history is not being kind to the administration of George W. Bush or to the extremist neoconservatives he surrounded himself with. The mess we see in today in the Middle East is a direct result of their shoot first and ask questions later policies. Even fellow Republicans know this to be the truth.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.

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