According to the Daily Mail, when George W. Bush was Governor of Texas, he admitted to Sir Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador to the U.S. at the time, that he knew little about international affairs. That’s not very surprising since the Bush administration’s responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, got us into a long-fought war that seemed to be never-ending.
When Sir Christopher Meyer met Bush in 1998 as he considered a run for the White House, the outlet reports that he admitted his lack of international experience despite his father having been president from 1989 to 1993.
“Bush admitted that, apart from Mexico, he did not know much about international affairs and that he would do well to broaden his experience,” Sir Christopher wrote, according to papers released by the National Archives. “His world view – as he is well aware – is largely limited to the Texan and Mexican horizons.”
Sir Christoper urged Bush to visit the U.K. Still, the then-Texas governor said that he could not afford to be seen undertaking high-profile foreign travel ahead of gubernatorial elections that autumn.
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“The Texas electorate would not forgive him if he appeared to be taking his eye off the business of governing Texas,” Sir Christopher reported, according to the outlet.
The diplomat said that if Bush did decide to seek the Republican Party nomination, he was regarded in the political circles in Washington as “by far the front runner.”
“This meeting confirmed my first snap opinion of George W: Very personable and with a good self-deprecating sense of humour,” Sir Christopher wrote.
While it’s true that Bush seems very personable and does have a healthy sense of humor, the United States invaded a sovereign territory resulting in countless deaths and costing an obscene amount of money. The U.S. occupied the region for 20 years. Actually, it was 19 years, ten months, three weeks, and two days.
Before a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001, Bush said in response to 9/11: “Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.”
And, of course, that never happened.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
