Press TV | 8 Nov 2014
Former US President George W. Bush says he regrets the fact that the US-led invasion of Iraq paved the way for the ISIL terrorist group, which is operating in Iraq and Syria.
“I think it was the right decision [to go into Iraq],” Bush told CBS News in an interview that will be broadcast on Sunday. “My regret is that…a violent group of people have risen up again…This is ‘Al Qaeda plus’…they need to be defeated. And I hope we do…I hope the strategy works.”
In 2003, Bush ordered the invasion on Iraq under the pretext that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. In October 2004, however, a CIA report revealed that Saddam did not possess any weapons of mass destruction at the time of the invasion.
The US war in Iraq cost American taxpayers $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, according to a study called Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.
In his CBS interview, Bush also said that when he made the announcement to invade Iraq, Saddam did not take him very seriously.
“You know, when he was captured — I was told that the FBI agent that talked to him, he said ‘I just didn’t believe Bush,” he said. “And it’s hard for me to believe he didn’t believe me.”
Bush added, “In retrospect…I don’t see how he could doubt my word.”
The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.
They have threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Izadi Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq and Syria.
US warplanes have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq since early August. Some Western states have also participated in some of the strikes in Iraq.
Since late September, the US and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.
The US-led coalition has done little to stop the ISIL’s advances in parts of Syria and in western Iraq.
Some analysts have criticized the aerial military campaign in Syria, saying the strikes are meant to destroy the Arab country’s infrastructure.
