Let’s see, under Bush’s watch, and following a foreign policy embraced enthusiastically by Republicans in Congress, North Korea has dramatically increased its weapons material stockpiles, withdrew from the Non Proliferation Treaty, threw out U.N. weapons inspectors, tested numerous missiles, and detonated a bomb. All of things the president said he would not allow to happen, have happened.
Bush White House, do you have a comment?
Today, a reporter asked if President Bush believes he has made any mistakes with respect to North Korea. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow responded, “Oh, my goodness…it’s a silly question.” Later, he called the question “gratuitous.” Snow explained that “you need to give presidents the benefit of the doubt when national security is involved.”
This is classic, quintessential Bush White House. A cursory glance at the administration’s policy towards North Korea highlights just how wildly, dangerously unsuccessful it’s been. If you’d like some kind of explanation for why the policy has failed so spectacularly, it’s “a silly question.” Of course it is; his “accountability moment” was two years ago.
And the very idea that Bush deserves “the benefit of the doubt when national security is involved” is, perhaps, the single most amusing thing Tony Snow has ever said. The whole idea behind credibility is someone earns it by demonstrating competence. Bush would probably have the benefit of the doubt on national security, if it weren’t for Iraq. And North Korea. And Iran.
As Kevin Drum put it yesterday, “The Bush/Cheney administration took a bad situation with Iraq and made it even worse. They’ve taken a bad situation with Iran and made it even worse. They’ve taken a bad situation with North Korea and made it even worse. At every step along the way, they’ve deliberately taken actions that cut off any possibility of solving our geopolitical problems with anything other than military force.”
“Benefit of the doubt”? Asking about possible mistakes is “silly”? Is Snow serious?
Here’s the transcript via ThinkProgres. Read it and weep.
QUESTION: Looking back, is there anything that the president would have done differently? Does he believe he has made any mistakes in this region?
SNOW: Oh, my goodness.
QUESTION: It’s a fair question.
SNOW: No, it’s a silly question.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
SNOW: Yes, it is, because… (CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: You just talked about…
SNOW: Well, let me ask you, give me some characterization of what you might think, because what typically happens is that any answer to that question is spun into: President made mistake, regrets.
What you do as president of the United States — and I have said this repeatedly from this podium, and you need to give presidents the benefit of the doubt when national security is involved — is the very best, in their judgment, of what they can do.
Now, what will happen is over time you find out, Hmmm, that data point wasn’t right. We need to adjust. So for every adjustment, sure, in perfect hindsight you would want perfect information and therefore perfect policy.
But instead what you do have in this administration and in prior administrations is a full-on effort to do what you think, based on the intelligence and the facts available to you, that’s going to be the most effective way to secure the safety of the American people.
QUESTION: The notion that that’s a silly question, when you have a president who draws a red line three years ago and says, We will not tolerate nuclear weapons, and now you have a country that just tested a nuclear weapon, you don’t think it’s fair to ask for some accountability as to what happened and whether there were mistakes made?
SNOW: The accountability lies in North Korea, not in Washington.
Put it in a time machine; future generations won’t believe it.