{"id":66101,"date":"2015-11-09T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=66101"},"modified":"2015-11-09T08:44:08","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T08:44:08","slug":"iron-ass-cheney-and-arrogant-rumsfeld-damaged-america-says-george-bush-sr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/11\/iron-ass-cheney-and-arrogant-rumsfeld-damaged-america-says-george-bush-sr\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Iron-Ass’ Cheney and ‘Arrogant’ Rumsfeld Damaged America, Says George Bush Sr"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former president claims hawkish reaction to 9\/11 attacks and desire to \u2018get our way in the Middle East\u2019 hurt his son\u2019s administration, says new biography.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A new biography of George HW Bush quotes the former president saying Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld damaged the reputation of the US. Photograph: Larry W Smith\/EPA<\/p><\/div>\n

5 Nov 2015 – <\/em>Former US president George HW Bush has hit out at Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld<\/a>, two of the most senior figures in his son\u2019s administration, labelling them too \u201chardline\u201d and \u201carrogant\u201d in their handling of the September 11 attacks.<\/p>\n

A new biography of the 41st president \u2013 Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush<\/em> \u2013 reveals that Bush Sr held Cheney and Rumsfeld responsible for the hawkish stance that \u201churt\u201d his son\u2019s administration, Fox News reported<\/a> on Wednesday [4 Nov].<\/p>\n

The book, by Jon Meacham, is based on audio diaries that Bush recorded during his time in the White House, as well as interviews with the former president and his wife, Barbara.<\/p>\n

Cheney served as defence secretary during George HW Bush\u2019s 1989-1993 presidency and later as vice-president under President George W Bush. After 9\/11, Bush Sr told his biographer: \u201cI don\u2019t know, he just became very hardline and very different from the Dick Cheney<\/a> I knew and worked with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reaction [to 9\/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,\u201d Bush told Meacham in the book, which is due to be published next week.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>

From left to right: Donald Rumsfeld, George W Bush and Dick Cheney, pictured in 2006 at the armed forces farewell tribute to Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Of his son\u2019s role, Bush Sr told his biographer: \u201cHe\u2019s my son, he did his best and I\u2019m for him. It\u2019s that simple an equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he criticised Bush Jr for allowing Cheney to build \u201ckind of his own state department\u201d and for the inflammatory language that infused the US response to the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do worry about some of the rhetoric that was out there \u2013 some of it his [Bush Jr], maybe, and some of it the people around him. Hot rhetoric is pretty easy to get headlines, but it doesn\u2019t necessarily solve the diplomatic problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that George W Bush\u2019s infamous State of the Union address in 2002<\/a>, in which the then president warned of an \u201caxis of evil\u201d<\/a> of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, \u201cmight be historically proved to be not benefiting anything\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rumsfeld, who was Bush Jr\u2019s secretary of defence for most of his two terms<\/a>, has so far not commented on the criticisms directed at him by the 41st president, who in the book calls him \u201can arrogant fellow\u201d, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t like what he did, and I think it hurt the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been that close to him anyway. There\u2019s a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks. He\u2019s more kick-ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dick Cheney speaks to Fox News<\/strong><\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=N8D-yM7ea30<\/p>\n

But Cheney told Fox News he took the \u201ciron-ass\u201d jibe as a compliment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took it as a mark of pride,\u201d he says. \u201cThe attack on 9\/11 was worse than Pearl Harbor, in terms of the number people killed, and the amount of damage done. I think a lot of people believed then, and still believe to this day that I was aggressive in defending, in carrying out what I thought were the right policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheney insisted he had enjoyed reading Meacham\u2019s book. \u201cThe diary\u2019s fascinating, because you can see how he felt at various key moments of his life. So I\u2019m enjoying the book. I recommend it to my friends. And [I\u2019m] proud to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he dismissed claims levelled by the former president that Lynne Cheney, his wife, as well as his daughter Liz Cheney, had been the \u201ceminence grises\u201d behind his vice-presidency. \u201cIt\u2019s his view, perhaps, of what happened, but my family was not conspiring to somehow turn me into a tougher, more hard-nosed individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got there all by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

George W Bush said his father \u201cwould never say to me: \u2018Hey, you need to rein in Cheney. He\u2019s ruining your administration.\u2019 It would be out of character for him to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made the decisions. This was my philosophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is true that my rhetoric could get pretty strong and that may have bothered some people. Obviously it did, including Dad, though he never mentioned it.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____________________________________<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/em><\/p>\n

George Bush Sr Book Reveals a More Dangerous Dick Cheney Than Anyone Knew<\/a> – <\/em><\/strong>Destiny and Power shows a VP with more authority than almost all his predecessors, making plain Bush Jr\u2019s administration could have been even worse.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dick Cheney Defends America’s Use of Torture, Again, in New Book<\/a> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Reuters contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former president claims hawkish reaction to 9\/11 attacks and desire to \u2018get our way in the Middle East\u2019 hurt his son\u2019s administration, says new biography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}