Ford and the war

How's that for a respectful pause? Watergate Bob Woodward just couldn't wait to spew Iraq war spittle all over the proceedings before the flag was even returned to full-mast.

The pundits will surely go over the interview ad nauseum, especially this comment:

"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

Yet in the opening paragraph Woodward claimed Ford said the Iraq war was "not justified". The quote above suggests he thought the "framing" was wrong, while Woodward is clearly suggesting Ford said the entire thing was wrong. Which was it? Can we see the transcript?

But OK, let's assume Ford was in the Skowcroft/Baker camp and thought Iraq was a mistake. Do we really need this brouhaha before the man is even laid to rest? Ford showed the ultimate respect for the office and for the nation by not interjecting himself or second-guessing the current president, unlike Clinton and Carter. Woodward is clearly trying to score book points off the story before it goes cold. It's pretty clear what kind of man Ford was by comparison.

As to context, Ford did offer a qualifier, "..said he would not have gone to war, based on the publicly available information at the time". I'd like to remind folks of what Andy Card recently said regards the ISG report:

"Referring to Mr. Bush’s secret intelligence briefings, Mr. Card said, “The president by definition knows more than any of those people who are serving on these panels.”

“The president’s obligations sometimes require him to be very lonely,” he said.

I'd like to vigorously agree with the former President on this comment regards engagement: "..unless it is directly related to our own national security." If I didn't think Iraq was part of the problem/solution, my opinions would trend more towards the left on this debate.

MORE from the Powerline guys, who question why Ford would want to give sanctions a chance after 10+ years of sanctions. There's a lot we don't know here.

MORE 12/29/06

Christopher Hitchens has no warm fuzzy for Gerald Ford. His story relating Ford's ill-fated attempt to support the Kurds against Saddam's new regime only to stab them in the back once the Shah made a ridiculous peace treaty with Baghdad is yet another event one could add to the list of old American mistakes in that region, mistakes that Bush might be trying to once and for all rectify.