The former US president Gerald Ford, who died on Tuesday, "very strongly" disagreed with George Bush's reasons for going to war in Iraq, according to a report published in today's Washington Post. Ford spoke at length about the mistakes he believed were made in the run up to the invasion, including those by his former White House chiefs of staff, the vice president Dick Cheney and then-defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.
He told the Post's Bob Woodward:
"And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security."
The comments were made in 2004 but embargoed until his death and, as PostWatch puts it, "that's a heckuva farewell present from one president to another, only one of which still bears the burden of trying to make things work".
The former president expressed similar views to a New York Daily Post reporter earlier this year, during an interview (also published today) in which he additionally revealed frustration at his handling by his "medical Torquemadas" .
"As he struggled out of his easy chair, his frailty became more apparent. It's only a few feet from his study to the dining room of the Fords' one-story ranch home, but he couldn't walk without a nurse at one elbow and Betty at the other."
Ford's Iraq attitude comes as no surprise to Carry on America, who is more interested in the 38th president's reminiscences on the former secretary of state, Henry Kissinger; specifically that he had "the thinnest skin of any public figure I ever knew".
