Aznyron, your beloved Mr. Bush speaks out in Calgary

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Aznyron, I am sure you want to be the first to read this. Of course, it is not as momentous as the Brooklyn Dodgers moving to Los Angeles, and it does not say a lot, but it will give you the opportunity to say a few words about the dearly departed...

Bush defends decision to invade Iraq
Article Comments (169) DAWN WALTON

Globe and Mail Update

March 17, 2009 at 6:33 PM EDT

Calgary — Former U.S. president George W. Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq, said “risk takers,” not government are needed to salvage the world economy and offered his advice to current U.S. administration during a luncheon speech in Calgary.

In his first public address since U.S. President Barack Obama moved into the White House, Mr. Bush was greeted with a standing ovation when he took the podium by close to 2,000 guests who paid $4,000 per table.

“This is my maiden voyage. My first speech since I was the president of the United States and I couldn't think of a better place to give it than Calgary, Canada,” he said to applause.

The invite-only event titled a “Conversation with George W. Bush” was banned to the press and organizers were coy about providing details leading up to the event.

But organizers had no trouble filling seats at the 195 tables. Security was tight. A lineup snaked through two city blocks leading to the Telus Convention Centre. Guests were searched and given full body pat-downs before they could enter the hall. The security gauntlet – and delays by Ticketmaster in arriving to check tickets – pushed back the speech by more than half an hour, but Mr. Bush said he would not cut his time with guests short.

“I'll sit here all day,” he said at one point, “I'm flattered people even want to hear me in the first place.”

For 43 minutes Mr. Bush delighted the audience with stories about life as commander in chief and now as a civilian. He also wished his successor the best of luck.

“He [Mr. Obama] was not my first choice for president, but when he won I thought it was good for the United States of America. I was deeply touched and I was deeply moved when I saw African Americans on TV weeping and saying, ‘I never thought it was possible,'” he said.

“I want the President to succeed,” Mr. Bush added, “I love my country more than politics.”

He continued: “I'm not going to spend my time criticizing him. There are plenty of critics in the arena.”

“He deserves my silence and if he wants my help he can pick up the phone and call me,” he said.

Mr. Bush reflected on the flailing U.S. economy and how he, a “free market guy” had no choice, but to “go against his nature” to step in with a bail out package in the waning days of his administration.

At the same time, he said government cannot act alone.

“It's the risk takers, not the government this is going to pull us out of this recession,” he said highlighting the need for entrepreneurs and business people to play a role.

During a 30-minute question and answers session, Frank McKenna, a former New Brunswick premier and Canadian Ambassador to the United States, asked Mr. Bush a range of questions.

He inquired about everything from movies that depict him (“I don't pay attention to Hollywood”) to who has got the economy right, the United States or Canada (“You do”) to whether the U.S. invasion of Iraq left the efforts in Afghanistan in the lurch (“It's a spurious argument as far as I'm concerned.”) Mr. Bush said the Middle East would be much more tumultuous if Saddam Hussein still controlled Iraq.

“The world is better off and the Iraqi people are better off with out Saddam, no ifs, ands or buts,” he said.

[laphanphon]

“He deserves my silence and if he wants my help he can pick up the phone and call me,”

he would get my utmost respect and even admiration, if Bush would go to the AG, ask for immunity, get it granted, then spill his guts about Cheney and all my perceived conspiracy theories, or just the false, not mistaken intelligence/evidence justifying all that happened. immunity would actually be appropriate, since his whole administration was nothing less than acting like the classic puppet.

“The world is better off and the Iraqi people are better off with out Saddam, no ifs, ands or buts,”

completely disagree, because of Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq, al qaeda, who i never heard of before, is stronger than ever, and Iraq is more dangerous, and we have been responsible for more iraqi deaths than saddam could of done in couple more decades of rule. and now, the region couldn't be any more unstable, with Iran just waiting to walk in and take over Iraq, since his buddies now run the place. great game plan. but they made their billions, and in the end, that all that matters. along with the guaranteed job security of the future constant supply of arms now to both sides, as usual.


but not to be, i'll just have to dream :frying pan: :frying pan: :guinness:

too much stress, back to R&R

[Marmite The Dog]

Bushy must be very proud to know that he is responsible for the death of thousands of innocent civilians and sending the world into depression.

What a star! =D>

[cali4995]

Some Nobel-prize winning economist even wrote a book about it.



With the utmost respect to our service people and their valiant efforts and tremendous
sacrifices along the way. The decision-makers opened a pandora's box beyond all of us.

[aznyron]

well since this post is dedicated to me I want to say thank you Tilo. i will make my post short.
LA spoke for me there is really nothing I can ad to his post except I am very happy he no longer resides on Pennsylvania ave.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Many people, no doubt, agree with you

Most importantly, I can never cheer for the L.A. Dodgers. After all of these years, they still should be the Brooklyn Dodgers to me.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Here is a follow-up article about the former president's visit to Calgary that may be more to most people's liking. Mr. Bush does not seem to be a well-loved man in the United States or anywhere else.

I thought it was posted earlier but it seems to have disappeared in a barrage of Izzix's newsworthy stories.

Speaking of whom, after all of this copying and pasting, I am beginning to take on a share of Khun Izzix's role on Udonmap. 55555


There he was, in perhaps the only city in Canada that would have him
Article Comments (329) JEFFREY SIMPSON

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

March 18, 2009 at 12:00 AM EDT

To borrow a phrase, he haunts us still - George W. Bush, that is.

We had thought, mercifully for all concerned, that we would not have Mr. Bush to kick around any more, that he would retire quietly to Texas to cut trees, clear land, tend to his presidential papers and otherwise not bother his fellow citizens, let alone foreigners such as Canadians, with his persona and "reflections" on his eight years in office.

The miserable results of those eight years are all around us, and him. You'd think a self-respecting man with such a doleful legacy would lie low for a while. You would have hoped that a self-respecting city such as Calgary would have understood that an invitation to him would hurt the city's image - not for hospitality, of course, but for rational politics.

But no, there Mr. Bush was yesterday, defending the indefensible in perhaps the only city in Canada where even a quarter of the population thought well of him as president.

Yes, the Afghan mission is 'failing' and, yes, the rituals continue
Obviously, the recession cannot entirely be blamed on Mr. Bush and his administration - but some of it can. The deregulation, the blind adherence to ideology, the growing deficits he bequeathed, the shredding social safety net, the two expensive and unresolved wars, the unfunded health-care programs: These all weigh heavily now on the United States and, by extension, on the world.

Mr. Bush inherited a surplus and turned over a deficit. He inherited a country respected in most parts of the world and turned over one respected only in pockets of the world. He inherited a government committed to internationalism and, where appropriate, multilateralism, and turned over a country outside climate-change protocols, the International Criminal Court, other United Nations treaties. He inherited a government seriously interested in Middle East peace and turned over one that showed interest in the file only at the end of his administration.

But why carry on with the indictment? In poll after poll, Americans passed judgment on him as the worst president in their lifetime and, arguably, one of the very worst in the history of the republic. He was so toxic that even his own party, gathered in St. Paul last summer, scarcely breathed his name.

It was as if his years had been a bad dream for his party, too, portending what eventually happened: a Republican defeat in the presidential and congressional elections in November, despite offering a candidate, John McCain, who at various times had broken with Mr. Bush on major policy issues. There could not be a proper hand-off from Mr. Bush to any Republican candidate, since Mr. Bush's hand on the torch would have doused the flame before it exchanged hands.

Americans will take many years to free themselves from his legacy - which is why Mr. Bush will haunt them for some time. The deficits he bequeathed, even before the recession swelled them, would have been onerous to reduce; the debt would have kept eating away at the nation's finances.

The unfunded programs he launched - No Child Left Behind in education and drug care for seniors, for example - would have to have been financed somehow, some day.

Iraq, quieter now, remains very violent in parts, pinning down tens of thousands of U.S. troops even after President Barack Obama withdraws some of them. The country remains fragile in the extreme, corrupt to the core, friendly with Iran and a daily drain on U.S. military and financial power. In Afghanistan, as Canadians know (well, most of them), the mission is failing, with very uncertain prospects for success, however defined.

What happened on the Bush watch, and now in its aftermath, is something more sweeping still: a sharp decline in the world predominance of the United States, now a debtor nation as no country has ever been indebted before in peacetime, a country whose economic model no longer commands envy or respect given its collapse, one whose students do poorly in international tests relative to those in most other advanced industrial countries, a country that commanded the world's sympathy and support after 9/11 but frittered most of it away under Mr. Bush's presidency.

A political outcast in most of his own country, except for religious and secular Republican bastions, found in Calgary arguably the only place outside the United States where he could get a welcome. Whatever he earned was too much.

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S G from Montreal, Canada _______________________...
Hmmmer ? from Canada writes: ..Small "c" or not the...
Seriously, why are there Bush defenders in Canada?...
HA HA HA HA!! Harpo, the leader of the party of "law...

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[Bandung_Dero]

This is not THAI related and definitely not UDON related.
Do you people really think we want the acts of that irresponsible arsehole and has-been thrust before our eyes again when most of us are trying to get back on track and recover from his legacy.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

This is why it is posted under World News and not in an Udon or Thailand section.

It just might, might, be of interest to someone.

Although it may prove offensive to you and some others, not everyone is going to be so put out. This is life. There is good and bad and much in between. 55555

[tigerryan]

For balance I voted for president Bush and his father. I supported President Bush then and now. Given a choice I would have President Bush back over President Obama. I am not looking to pick a fight over politics I would just like to point out that most yanks you meet in Thailand don't really represent the split of about 30%Republican 30%Democrat 30% clueless of people stateside. If it were not for the folks that were involved in Thailand during the war you could easily conclude having a beer at an average bar in Thailand that all Americans hate President Bush.

[Dave58]

I thought the OP was a message for Aznyron, which he has now read.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Geeesh, you guys...calm down, take it easy. Don't worry. 55555.

Thailand is the land of the free...anyone can read it. Who is to stop you?

I put Aznyron's name in the title as a little joke because it seems that he does not care for the former President.

No wonder the Thais say that farangs think too much. 55555

[BKKSTAN]

I thought the OP was a message for Aznyron, which he has now read.

Then it would have been more appropiate in a PM,but I think the OP meant to light a spark!