The former president talks to USA TODAY about his
new presidential library at Southern Methodist University.
Former president George W.
Bush says his new presidential library is "a place to lay out facts,"
not a forum to explain policies such as the war with Iraq or his
administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.
"There's no need to defend myself," Bush said in a phone
interview with USA TODAY. "I did what I did and ultimately history will
judge."
After keeping a low profile since leaving office in 2009, Bush is
returning to the spotlight for Thursday's dedication of the George W. Bush
Presidential Center in Dallas.
He will be joined by President Obama and former presidents George H.W.
Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The center on the campus of Southern
Methodist University includes a library, museum and the George W. Bush
Institute, a public policy center.
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are featured prominently in the
museum, Bush says. "It's apparent that time is quickly dimming our
memories" of that event, he says, "yet the lessons of 9/11 are as
profound today as they were then." Among those lessons, he says:
"Evil exists still in the form of people who murder innocent people to
advance a point of view."
The Iraq War, the 2007 troop surge there, the 2008 financial meltdown
and the response to Katrina in 2005 are featured in an interactive exhibit
called "decision points theater" where visitors can assess "the
decisions that I had to make and the recommendations I received," he says.
When people try to debate him on decisions he made while in office, Bush
says, he suggests that they read his 2010 memoir, Decision Points.
"Get a sense of what I did and if you still disagree, I understand,"
he says he tells them.
Bush's approval rating in January 2009 as he left office was 34%; it
peaked at 90% in the Gallup Poll just after the 9/11 attacks. A CNN/ORC
International poll conducted in May 2012 found that 43% had a favorable view of
Bush. The same poll gave Clinton a 66% approval rating and the senior Bush 59%.
He follows politics but isn't obsessed, Bush says, and he's
"content" that he has stuck with his pledge to avoid comment on
Obama's policies. He did not attend last year's Republican National Convention.
"It's refreshing and liberating," Bush says, to work on issues
such as education, the economy, veterans, women's health and the democracy
movement without worrying about politics.
The former president and his wife, Laura, visited Africa last year to
help refurbish a clinic for Zambian women. "It was a joyous moment,"
Bush says, and he even enjoyed being "on the short end of a paint brush for
three or four days."
The institute also is studying ways to recruit and hire skilled school
principals; developing a curriculum based on "voices of freedom,"
including the stories of escapees from North Korean prison camps and world
leaders such as the late Czech dissident and president Vaclav Havel; bringing
Egyptian women to the United States to develop their leadership skills.
In the interview, Bush also said:
He is "truly" happy to be largely out of the limelight.
"Some people get confused about my desire not to have the klieg
lights shining on me, but eight years is plenty to be in the lights," he
says.
His father is "doing a lot better" after being gravely ill
last winter. "His will to live is strong," Bush says.
It was "a special feeling" to welcome his first grandchild
this month when his daughter Jenna Bush Hager gave birth to daughter Mila.
Fonte: http://www.usatoday.com/
Matéria completa:
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário