Sigh - It Hurts So Much

What an embarrassment for America:

MR. LEHRER: Today, the United Nations issued a report that said 34,000 Iraqi civilians have died in sectarian violence in the last year. What's the message of that, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Message is we better help this government stop the sectarian violence. I hear all kinds of different numbers, but the fact is that too many have died........ Because otherwise, the violence - in my judgment, and I think in the judgment of others - if we don't help them stop it, it's going to get a lot worse, believe it or not......

MR. LEHRER: Just today, another 35 people were killed in bombings; 80 over the weekend.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah, there is a difference between - look, death is terrible...... And it's going to be hard to make Baghdad zero - to make it bomb-proof.....

MR. LEHRER: But to be very direct about it, Mr. President, you had a few years here and you've been in charge. And you've made a lot of decisions; you've made a lot of judgments about things and they haven't worked. And so now you've made a new one. So why should anybody expect the new ones to work when the prior ones did not?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, actually - I will sound defensive - but some of my decisions actually have worked,..........

MR. LEHRER: Mr. President, do you have a feeling of personal failure about Iraq right now?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I'm frustrated at times about Iraq because I understand the consequences of failure. I want the Iraqis to succeed for our own sake..... Failure - and this is what is hard, I think, for the American people to understand and one of the reasons why I appreciate talking to you is that people have got to understand that if we fail in Iraq, it is likely there will be safe haven from which people will be able to launch attacks from America......

MR. LEHRER: Let me ask you a bottom-line question, Mr. President...... if it's that important to all of us and to the future of our country, if not the world, why have you not, as president of the United States, asked more Americans and more American interests to sacrifice something? The people who are now sacrificing are, you know, the volunteer military - the Army and the U.S. Marines and their families. They're the only people who are actually sacrificing anything at this point.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night........

MR. LEHRER: And you're an optimist - you're optimistic about it all at this point?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I am. No question there's a - look, a year ago if we'd been having this discussion prior to the Samarra bombing, I'd have been - look what happened. And then the enemy responded....... And I spent a lot of time thinking about it, Jim, obviously. You mentioned five weeks. This is what presidents do; they take time, they listen......

Posted on The Human Stain