Cairo, June 19: Repeating the mantra of his eight-year presidency, former US President George W. Bush opened fire at his successor Barack Obama over the reversal of his anti-terror measures, saying the war on terror is an “ideological conflict”, the Washington Times reported Thursday, June 18.
“I’ll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don’t believe that persuasion isn’t going to work,” Bush told a local business group in Pennsylvania.
“Therapy isn’t going to cause terrorists to change their mind.”
Avoiding to directly criticize Obama’s policies, Bush repeated his mantra that the “war on terror” is an “ideological conflict”, saying the US needs to stay on offense.
“The way I decided to address the problem was twofold: One, use every technique and tool within the law to bring terrorists to justice before they strike again,” he said.
During his eight-year presidency, Bush launched his so-called “war on terror”, which saw the invasion of two Muslim countries; Afghanistan and Iraq.
He also authorized the rendition of terror suspects into Guantanamo and other secret locations and allowed harsh interrogation techniques of detainees, including waterboarding.
When he came to office in January, Obama moved to reverse Bush’s controversial policies, ordering the closure of Guantanamo within a year and banning the use of torure techniques.
US Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that fewer than 60 of the 230 Guantanamo detainees will be prosecuted while the rest would be released.
“We’ve gone through (the cases of) about half of the detainees at this point,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I don’t think we’re going to have a very huge number.”
Obama’s measures drew fire from former Bush administration officials, notably former vice-president Dick Cheney.
CIA chief Leon Panetta has said that Cheney’s criticism of Obama’s policies suggest that he wants the US to be attacked.
“I think he smells some blood in the water on the national security issue,” Panetta told The New Yorker magazine for its June 22 edition, released on Sunday.
“It’s almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that’s dangerous politics.”
Economy, Iran
The former US president also took swipe at Obama’s policies to tackle the economic crisis.
“I am told, ‘If you do not move strongly, Mr. President, you will be a president overseeing a depression that will ultimately be greater than the Great Depression,'” Bush said.
“I firmly believe it was necessary to put money in our banks to make sure our financial system did not collapse. I did not want there to be bread lines, to be a great depression.”
A financial crisis swept the US last September after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank.
The fallout has since snowballed into a full-fledged crisis, threatening personal finances as home prices fall, retirement funds shrink and access to credit and jobs evaporate.
Bush avoided to openly criticize Obama’s position on the Iranian presidential elections.
“Clearly, there’s a level of frustration on the Iranian streets,” he said. “It looks like it’s not a very fair election.”
Iran has been boiling since incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected last week to a new four-year term in office, defeating his main challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
Mousavi has refused to acknowledge the results, leading his supporters in street protests that have left seven people dead and many wounded so far.
–Agencies