HELEN THOMAS: I'd like to ask you, Mr. President,
your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of
thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and
Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at
least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why
did you really want to go to war? From the moment you
stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet -- your
Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth -- what
was your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil -- quest
for oil, it hasn't been Israel, or anything else. What was
it?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I think your premise, in
all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong
journalist, is that, you know, I didn't want war. To assume
I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect
--
HELEN THOMAS: Everything --
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Hold on for a second,
please.
HELEN THOMAS: -- everything I've heard --
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Excuse me, excuse me. No
president wants war. Everything you may have heard is that,
but it's just simply not true. My attitude about the defense
of this country changed on September the 11th. We -- when we
got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at
my disposal to protect the American people. Our foreign
policy changed on that day, Helen. You know, we used to
think we were secure because of oceans and previous
diplomacy, but we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that
killers could destroy innocent life. And I'm never going to
forget it. And I'm never going to forget the vow I made to
the American people that we will do everything in our power
to protect our people.
Part of that meant to make sure that we didn't allow
people to provide safe haven to an enemy. And that's why I
went into Iraq -- hold on for a second --
HELEN THOMAS: They didn't do anything to you or to
our country.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Look -- excuse me for a
second, please. Excuse me for a second. They did. The
Taliban provided safe haven for al-Qaeda. That's where
al-Qaeda trained --
HELEN THOMAS: I'm talking about Iraq --
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Helen, excuse me. That's
where -- Afghanistan provided safe haven for al-Qaeda.
That's where they trained. That's where they plotted. That's
where they planned the attacks that killed thousands of
innocent Americans.
I also saw a threat in Iraq. I was hoping to solve this
problem diplomatically. That's why I went to the Security
Council; that's why it was important to pass 1441, which was
unanimously passed. And the world said, ‘Disarm, disclose,
or face serious consequences’ --
HELEN THOMAS: -- go to war --
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: -- and therefore, we
worked with the world, we worked to make sure that Saddam
Hussein heard the message of the world. And when he chose to
deny inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then I had
the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did,
and the world is safer for it.
