bush? >> guest: my experience in listening to each one speak is that even though they are willing to chide him for small things, the real -- the subjects of real importance are not questioned. >> host: all right, thank you very much. professor julian of princeton, let's start with you. >> guest: i don't agree with the caller and we've raised issues that are not small. you know, the potential of manipulating data and evidence which is the rational for war, failures in katrina, and economic policies, that's not small. we dealt with a lot of big issues, and i think there's disagreement on this panel in terms of evaluating the presidency. i think this is one of the challenges though of studying presidencies in a polarized age. i think many of the people listening and many of the people interacting in conversations kind of read into comments and read into what they see instantly their own politics, and often i find it difficult to have really thoughtful discussions in that environment, but we ha

bush's memoir, "decision points." the panelists include laura brown, assistant professor in the department of political science at villanova university; tevy troy, senior fellow at the hudson institute and former deputy secretary of the u.s. department of health & human services; and julian salazar, history and public affairs professor at princeton university. this program originally aired live and includes your phone calls. it's 90 minutes. >> host: and now a historian's roundtable discussion of george w. bush's presidential memoir, "decision points." joining us here in washington is professor laura brown of villanova and tevy troy who used to work for george w. bush and is associated with the hudson institute. let's start with just a general assessment of "decision points" as a presidential memoir. tevy troy. >> guest: well, the whole genre of presidential memoirs really started with ulysses s. grant who wrote a fascinating and novelistically written one and that's the standard by which these things are often measur

>> very kind jeps tour on the part of george bush. the first guests in the white house after he assumed the oval office from bill clinton happened to be a democrat and his wife, robert byrd, the senior democrat in washington, d.c., today. i mentioned before he has outlasted so many presidents, and bobby bid and his wife, i believe her name is irma was invited by president bush and first lady laura bush to sit down for their first dinner in the white house. as i said, not only was it a very kind gesture and reach across the aisle, but it was very telling, something robert byrd said after the dinner, when asked what impressed you most about this new president of the united states, and robert byrd said, the fact that he said grace after a meal, after his meal, is what impressed him the most. and i'm not sure if he was referring to the previous eight years and the lack of grace in the white house or not, but that definitely had an impact on robert byrd. >> but when i read it, i thought, it's interesting, the quote here is i like the fact

bush and his circle, his commanders, all at one table, at one time. we'll show you some of that just moments from now. but again tonight, we begin in tucson, arizona, and again tonight another positive progress report on the recovery of congresswoman gabby giffords. leaving the hospital tomorrow, actually coming to houston for rehabilitation, we begin tonight with nbc's kristen welker in tucson. kristen, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the congresswoman's husband said he chose that rehabilitation center because it is top-notch and close to where he lives and works. the astronaut, like this community, now preparing for the next phase of his wife's recovery. on a day when religious leaders gathered for a prayer service at the crime scene, mark kelly announced his wife is ready to be moved to houston for rehabilitation. >> she's a strong person, a fighter. i mean she is a fighter like, you know, nobody else that i know. >> reporter: kelly says his wife is so tenacious, she is trying to speak, and has shown other encouraging signs. >> she'

bush and mr. obama have never been able to define a winning strategy, and so my own view is a bad it is not worth another american marine or another american soldier's life to stay there. the one thing i would add though, when we leave it will be a tremendous defeat for the united states. however we dress it up, if we say the afghans had their chance and they couldn't do it, if we say that we have somehow satisfied what we went there to do, we may fool the american people but we will not fool the muslim world. when we leave afghanistan without accomplishing what we said we were going to, it will be viewed as the mujahideen defeating the second superpower. and all that can only mean rather, that the muslim world will be more galvanized against us, and more young men will flow to the battlefields, wherever they are and certainly more will take up arms inside the united states. >> michael scheuer's new book, "osama bin laden" will be in bookstores in february of 2011. .. >> host: on another important

that the bush administration's allies fabricated you know the reality the reality. he talked bush talked about spreading democracy for damascus to tehran well i think we all agree that syria and iran could use more democracy he didn't talk about spreading democracy from riyadh to cairo and in fact under bush we increased our security assistance to oppressive regimes which. which use these security assistance to suppress civil society organizations struggling for democracy and then we turn around and say oh there's no democracy because it's not part of their culture we've got to go slowly this we've got to go slowly line is what you know virtually every tyrant you know in left right and center has used for. forever to try to justify their rule people deserve their freedom and it's not the united states to offer it to them it's for them to claim for their own lives a very difficult when we are probably one of these days dictatorships and giving in the means of repression to suppress such a pro-democracy movements then you want to go in there and respond reply go ahead

was impatient you and bush. and patience and look what you get it's got to take some years give it time. but i think the point is here with the arsenal there's a point is hearing the problems in iraq are from the invasion not from the problems in iraq or from an invasion not for democracy though the problems in iraq are because of a foreign illegal foreign military occupation which stirred up this extremist kind of reaction if democracy is a. natural leader in that country if we hadn't ported. saddam was a very very big struggle. we americans former i don't know why i never let me go to you i mean what tell me you know i know that it's a mythical thing but i like the term anyway the arab street here i mean what kind of example has been set what kind of events are being put into play because of tunisia and we again we all agree we don't know where it's going to go but i mean it must all across the mediterranean for sure people my saying there is hope out there now that you see how people will start building upon

i think overall, the bush administration did a lot of things that made sense. but they also did some things like he didn't make sense. the invasion of iraq be essentially the biggest. >> host: we will talk about that in a minute. >> guest: i think the interrogations', i don't use the word torture in the book which is sort of floated. if you have any federal prosecutor or fbi agent who is life and bread, bread and butter is effective common on corrosive interrogation would have said this is both unnecessary in the legal i share that view. guantanamo didn't do much good obviously in the war of ideas but preaching the virtues of democracy and human rights in the muslim world that hypocritically seem to reserve the right to make for those purposes and the chapter i devote, you are a historian of small war in this country and the victory against taliban was one of the great unconventional victories of both the post world war ii time frame, but the same set of policies that allow us to overthrow the taliban failed completely at the bottom of tora bora. relatively sma

could the bush six finally be held respond. civil on january seventh the center for constitutional rights filed papers encouraging judge alloy velasco and the spanish national court to prosecute the former senior bush government lawyers for violating international law by creating a legal framework that aided and abetted the torture of suspected terrorists now why spain you might be asking why it's because the united states won't do it as the obama administration has made it perfectly clear constantly talking about their commitment to move forward rather than focus on the past but we can leaks diplomatic cables reveal that the us put significant pressure on the spanish courts to stop the prosecution and april two thousand and nine just days after the case was opened so is there any hope this time around all those who flagrantly violated international laws for their own purposes get off scot free well joining me to discuss it is catherine gallagher senior staff attorney at the center for constitutional rights catherine thanks so

bush did not do it because of the opposition to nation building post 9/11. it would be more persuasive if we have not already tried to do nothing or light. we have done these approaches to both found wanting. i think we have the strategy right finally. but i think when you're from now or 18 months from now freer in the same place people think presuming yourself would have to say perhaps this is a working forever reasoned. >> host: of pakistan or afghanistan? >> guest: mostly afghanistan. >> host: what about pakistan? i think we are the right path in afghanistan but we do have a plausible strategy in the resources to carry out i am also sure about pakistan. do you feel we're on the right track and if not what should we be doing? >> guest: pakistan this effort -- very difficult but because we hear some day problems we will throw some things that are quite promising. we have a real independent presence before you just had state tv and dozens of few stations which are quite anti-american and pro democracy. second you have the lawyers movement and third, the pro

paying attention that obama seems a long gone the obama we see now has instead continued expanded bush administration policies with the exceptions of ending the enhanced interrogation program and closing the cia black sites instead he's placed american citizens on due process free assassination lists invoked state secrets a number of times has not only not close guantanamo but now supports indefinite detention and has waged a war on whistleblowers perhaps the worst part of it all is has he vindicated bush and cheney dick cheney definitely think so as he explained in a recent interview with n.b.c. news. i think he's also. obviously has been through the fires of becoming president having to make decisions and live with the consequences. that what we did was far more appropriate than he ever gave us credit for. and now earlier i caught up with an experiment of the young turks and i first asked her if it made her just a little bit sick to her stomach to see dick cheney the man who once said that obama's policies are making us less safe suddenly start nearly applauding him for his actions.

bush authorized in his eight terms in office. he's also authorized a somewhat aggressive campaign in yemen to go after al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. and so and -- and taken coercive interrogations off the table. he has tried to reduce the number of prisoners and detainees at guantanamo. but he's -- he certainly hasn't closed the place. and it shows that some of these issues are -- quite a lot of continuity between the republican party and the democratic party on key issues of national security. but always matters for debate. but president obama has -- i think a number of the people who would have voted for him would be surprised by these developments. tavis: so finally here, given this longest war that you write about in this text, have any of our objectives, any of the initial objectives been met advice vee this longest war? -- vis-a-vis this longest war? >> i think so. al qaeda means the base in arabic and they lost their base in afghanistan as a result of the george w. bush invasion of the country. there were mistakes mad

so i don't think it that president bush lost patience.i think it became apparent then that we were going to get a second resolution passed the security council. >> obama standing you touch really about benchmarks. chile and mexico wanted three weeks and president bush would not agree to a week. you think that was the fact that? >> yeah, but i am back to him and said that the ultimatum, the agreement to ultimatum, i think we would've got the extra time. i mean, the problem was -- he kept saying to me perfectly understandably, look, i hear what you're saying, but you can't even that the french on board? and was they couldn't. >> you're saying you could go back because he thought the french were hardened. >> picked up by them, the french position had heard and what they would've veto without at the ultimatum. >> can we just stay on this for a moment because it's quite an important moment. he said in a statement that the french statement of opposition in chile and internal politics made president lagos said he could not support what was going

george bush? "i'll tell you something. when the [skips word] hits the fan and his gang comes to me for advice, i'm not going to provide it unless they are willing to thank me publicly. neither reagan nor bush" -- this must be... guest: referring to clinton. c-span: ... bill clinton. "neither reagan nor bush did that after all these years of my advice and, frankly, i've had it. they'll find me when they need me, but i may not be available." did he really mean that? guest: i'm not sure he was referring to clinton there. he may have been referring to the bush campaign. i'm not sure. we'll have to clarify that. c-span: but there's a lot of that kind of a quote in the book... guest: right. c-span: ... about different politicians and the advice that they would seek from him, but they wouldn't acknowledge it publicly. what was that all about? guest: that's right. well, generally that was a problem with the republican presidents, because obviously there was a great political problem for them in dealing with richard nixon. this was

bush, number one for five weeks. i'm laura bush, number one for four weeks. she went on a pretty extensive book tour as well, didn't she? >> guest: she did. she did. her book has been out since may i believe. and bush's book has only been out since the second week of november i believe. so keep in mind some of these books have and how that went to go. "the immortal life of henrietta lacks" has been out for a few weeks. >> host: before we get the calls, let's talk about game change by john heilman and mark halpert. >> guest: i'm sorry, i'm not that familiar with that boat. >> host: one of the political bios of barack obama in the campaign of she doesn't need. another one that came out about barack obama, and other biography was david remnick scum of the life and rise of rock obama. this also came out in 2010. greenwich, connecticut. good evening, u.n. put tv with jenn risko of self-awareness. go ahead with your question. >> caller: high, one of the game changers this year that everyone was talking about was e-book and how they were affecting the market. and a

bush said to mccain something like, that's politics. mccain said to bush, is everything politics? and suddenly the guy says "on stage." i knew we were going to have a humdinger. >> tonight, a crucial debate for the lee remaining republican presidential candidates. >> remember who called who untrustworthy. this is a pro life party. may i finish, please? >> moderating is easy. all i have to do is ask good questions and keep it goings. can't let it get out of hand yet you want it to be strife ridden. >> you should be ashamed. you should be ashamed. >> is he responsible for what someone else said? >> this same man attacked his father. >> this is an attack piece. >> that is not by my campaign. >> it says paid for by john mccain. >> that is not by my campaign. >> then somebody is putting stuff out. >> on both sides it got really nasty. if bush had lost that, mccain would have been president i think. >>> any scenario in which you would run for president? can you give me a scenario where you'd say, i'm in. >> number one, i don't want it. >> what a night that was. i asked him three times p

bush it's thought it might shed light on exactly why the u.k. got dragged into the invasion when one of the politicians whose party was in power at the time now gives his insight to r.t. . today i'm in london with jeremy corbyn who's a member of parliament with the labor party and also an antiwar campaigner we are here as tony blair appears before the chilcote inquiry for the second time jeremy cotton thanks very much for talking to r.t. now this as i've said is not the first time that blair is appearing before the iraq inquiry can you just remind us what happened last time while he was very nervous to begin with came into the room and was asked some questions of a moderately robust way about the evidence leading up to his decision to recommend the power might we know very few to rock and then the latter part of. it turned into the sort of tony blair lecture in defense of his policies on some what he calls humanitarian intervention and then went on to warn the whole world about what he perceived to be this danger from iran and i thought the whol

>> guest: you know, surprises, gosh, the bush book. almost 2 million copies. >> host: disappointments? >> guest: i don't see any. sorry. am i just such an optimist. i don't have any. [laughter] >> host: jenn risko. co-founder of the industry newsletter shelf awareness. also a web site. shelf-awareness.com. thank you for being onbook tv and our look at the 2010 review of books. : guest hosts to interview authors. this week, to the surprise winner john dower examine significant military attacks that led to american invasion and occupation of fraud in his new book, cultures of war to read the former mit history professor explores the attack on pearl harbor, the bombing of hiroshima, the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of iraq, finding commonality in these major events at an institutional level. he discusses his findings with institute for policy studies fellow sanho tree. >> host: professor dower, it's an honor to have you here. i've been an admirer of your work for two decades now, and your latest book, "cultures of war" is something so sw

bush. when it comes to the eternal global war on terror, he has embraced the unconstitutional war powers claimed by his predecessor, the door open for the quite options and later date. so the first question, is there anything you to agree on? just kidding. jonathan, tell us about -- i know the answer, no reason to go there. >> that actually might help set the parameters of the debate a little. there's a lot i agree i'm with roger. >> the liberals are all getting along. >> i'm not so sure because my problem with roger's book is not the details in it, which i agree with. it's the attitude that's reflected in the title, "the mendacity of hope." mendacity means lying. so the assumption behind knight is somehow obama is lacking integrity and he is promising something that he can't deliver and my take is quite different. so i think we need to make a distinction between some of the particulars on the economy and the way he did continue a number of bush policies, particularly at both the banks, but

bush describes his mother dorky walker bush has a drill sergeant. ba bra bush, of course, mother of george bush 43 is one tough cookie. >> do you ask your dad for advice? >> sure, i do. >> how about your mom? >> you don't need to ask her. she'll just tell. >> i do give advice. it's no good but i give it. >> to all of us. >> and some of us take it better than others. chris: and then there's bill clinton and virginia kelly. his biography of clinton, the great author emeritus described that mom this way -- the psychological center of her life seemed to be her son billy. she made it clear she expected him to achieve. well, accepting his presidential nomination bill clinton acknowledged his mother was no petunia. >> well, where i get my fighting spirit, it all started with my mother. chris: a sentiment echoed by his mother. here she was with katie couric on "today" that same week. >> it's been written to understand bill, you must start with virginia. how does he take after you? >> i have a lot of drive. >> and you don't give up easily? >> no, never. chri

. >> jeb bush because of his national leadership in the field of education, which is going to become day? >> manicuring. >> destined for political stardom in 2011. new york city mayor mike bloomberg, approval ratings from both republicans and democrats drop the more people will ask bloomberg to throw his hat in the ring for run for president in 2012 as an independent destined for political stardom in 2011. what do you think of that? >> i say that's a low probability outcome. not because he isn't a star but because i think he's going to stay away from running or even indicating that he'll be involved in presidential politics. >> destined for political oblivion, pat. >> the euro zone, it is coming down this year. ireland or greece or spain or portugal will default, the banks will come down, the euro zone will be yesterday. >> eleanor. >> don't ask/don't tell. the congress is acting as if they didn't or if they don't the courts will act, and we're going to end he that policy which has been really unfair and is a violation of the civil rights of a number of people. >> margo. >> cap and t

the bush administration the us has shown support to the countries opposition the situation has changed nowadays it is up to russian activists to build up their relations with their administration with very tree lighting on america so much has changed in the relations between russia and the united states since the bush administration of especially after the so-called resets over the relations between russia and the united states but ever had of the presidential election in two thousand and twelve russia's opposition wants the united states to side with that in order to lobby their interests but the response from the us ambassador to russia to that's was that it shows the fact that russia's opposition do not have the same understanding of democracy as americans do. investigative journalist webster tarpley believes the wiki leaks revelations merely show that russia's opposition movement has no real political influence. what we see in these papers is the russia director of the national security council michael mcfaul who is interested in grooming boris nemtsov as a candidate to stop putin

"oh, jeez, bush was right? people want freedom but egypt was our friend who tortured bush ." caller: i am a recovering black republican who chose to be independent. there are elements of that party that would like to do what those people are doing over there. when we talk about the money we send them. what if the money that we borrowed from china came with any stipulations? since egypt is not being attacked by any other country, it is the best place for barack obama and the united states to stay out of that, because when these people have democratic elections, if they elect someone we do not like it, we will ignore them like we are doing in israel, which is close to apartheid if you are palestinian. if we do not like the people that win, we do not acknowledge them. we cannot preach democracy if we will not respect democracy. we cannot put any strings. as long as china is not dictating policy, all we hear is that china is paying for tax breaks. host: you are watching alge jazeera. it is no longer available in each appeared the broadcaster has been ordered to close its cairo ne

but the idea was, it's starring george bush and laura bush and, originally, the bush twins in the white house. 'cause it's your family sitcom. it's your family sitcom. somewhere along the line, we--one of our writers on this show wrote sides, wrote a little scene. we were casting-- we were casting many different-- like, we were seeing what kind of cast we were going to even have. and we were casting-- doing initial casting call for the bush twins, the bush daughters. and he wrote a scene that was pretty over-the-top. it was about them being like lesbians and stuff. it was all implied; it was pretty stupid. but it was never going to be in the show. it was just for casting purposes to get people-- that got leaked to the internet, and then it made, like, page six or something. yeah, hit the papers. some tabloid picked it up, and it just--boom. and it was like, "matt, trey, lesbian bush daughters," and-- so that was never the intent, to-- no, in fact-- and i think that, then, people-- although, that's kind of a funny-- anyone who saw the show saw that it was this outrageous show. but again,

bush do he went back to the u.n. to get a resolution out of the security council giving him a gentleman safe to walk your pie that country why did he do that because he realized that without that u.n. resolution he would not get worldwide support and as for the conflicts the the other speaker mention the congo the u.n. has troops in the congo is trying to bring peace there i mean come on and give the u.n. credit for what it's trying to do it can't settle every crisis around the globe i admit that but even in places that no other country will deal with it has tried to show some authority some involvement in order to bring some sort of settlement to these conflicts you know if the if the u.n. didn't exist for example the seventeen peacekeeping missions that it supporting right now would the u.s. be putting troops in there to keep those conflicts from spreading or spinning out of control and would this country be supporting u.n. mission that u.s. missions around the globe. pouring in defense dollars touring in taxpayers