BUSH SR.: THE DECISION MUST BE MADE BY ONE PERSON: THE PRESIDENT'
Sun Mar 09 2003 08:57:38 ET
President George W. Bush tells his father, former President
George H.W. Bush, not to worry, reports TIME's Hugh Sidey. "It�s my job
to worry," Bush the elder tells SIdey, with a chuckle. He says he has
moments when he would like to suit up, "get off the bench" and go back in
the game.
"The decision on the war cannot finally be made by a committee or by a
general. It must be made by one person�the President," the former
president tells Sidey.
Sidey reports Bush Sr. regards Saddam Hussein and his military
establishment as far less powerful now than when Desert Storm was
launched. But he believes Saddam is surely far wiser about the strength of
the U.S. "He had no respect for our military then," says the elder Bush.
"He felt that we could not fight. Now he knows."
Sidey writes that Bush, who will be 80 this year, is concerned "not about
the rightness of the cause in Iraq or the ability of the President to lead
the country in this dangerous time. It is that of a father who sees his
son on a lonely and difficult march and knows he may be the only other
person on the planet who can completely understand what the President is
going through."
Bush Sr. spoke to Sidey, who writes of their conversations in his column,
"The Presidency," which appears in Monday's TIME (on newsstands March 10).
The headline is, "'He Had No Respect for Our Military Then.' The
President's father on Saddam, the first Gulf War and what his son faces
now."
Bush Sr. tells Sidey, "It is the toughest decision a President has to
make, to send the sons and daughters of Americans into harm�s way." He
recalls that before he sent these "wonderful young" troops into battle in
Panama, the anxiety was terrible. "The night before I could not move my
neck or arms. The tension had taken hold, the responsibility for those
lives, even though I had been in combat myself."
Sidey has written about the American Presidency for more than 40 years and
has authored TIME's column "The Presidency" since 1966. George W. Bush is
the 10th President about whom Sidey has written. Sidey was the only
reporter aboard Air Force One returning the President to Houston when he
left office. In 1998, Sidey was elected President of the White House
Historical Association.
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