Bush Doesn’t Second-Guess Himself on Iraq. Even when Everybody Else Does.

“I believe Bush is a very advanced particular person,” mentioned Melvyn P. Leffler, a College of Virginia historian who simply printed “Confronting Saddam Hussein,” a guide analyzing the battle. “On the one hand, he seems to consider that his resolution to invade Iraq was right. However, his guide of work, it’s important to think about that deep in his soul he feels quite a lot of agony, of accountability, of remorse for these whose lives have been scarred eternally and for individuals who perished.”

Those that have labored with him since he left workplace, nevertheless, mentioned he by no means talks in such phrases, no less than not of their presence. He understands the battle went unsuitable, and in his memoir, “Choice Factors,” acknowledged two errors: the false intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and the failure to reply extra decisively when safety started to deteriorate. However he doesn’t revisit the underlying resolution or dwell on his accountability.

“I don’t see his curiosity in serving to veterans, particularly wounded warriors, as atonement,” mentioned James Okay. Glassman, who served as an beneath secretary of state beneath Mr. Bush and later was the founding govt director of the George W. Bush Institute. “By no means received an inkling of that. He actually admires — form of adores — these women and men. Perhaps it’s their very own self-discipline and dedication, don’t know.”

Mr. Bush’s silence at this anniversary, within the view of his critics, has hardly erased the stain of the choice he made. Opponents of the battle argue that he and his administration didn’t merely make a good-faith error in believing defective intelligence however distorted the case to promote a battle they have been predisposed to wage. A loss of life toll that reached tons of of hundreds and the disgrace of the American abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, they mentioned, haven’t been forgotten by historical past.

“Bush won’t ever wash the blood off his arms,” mentioned Gary J. Bass, a scholar of human rights at Princeton. “Twenty years after his disastrous aggression, it solely seems to be worse. He can’t escape this.”