Former President George W. Bush Reflects on Image, War on Terror, Future
In the eight years since President George W. Bush boarded the Marine Corps helicopter waiting to take him and his wife Laura away from the U.S. Capitol after President Barack Obama's inauguration, he's rarely looked back. And for the most part, he's avoided the media spotlight.
Bush says that's by "design."
"I didn't want to undermine President Obama and I don't want to undermine President Trump," he explained.
"What's interesting is when Barack Obama was president, people from Texas would call me and say, ‘You've got to speak out.' Now when Donald Trump's the president, people from the coast call me and say, ‘You've got to speak out.'"
And occasionally he does, such as during his appearance on NBC's "Today" show when he commented on Trump's characterization of some media organizations as an "enemy of the American people."
"I spoke about the free press and people said that I am a believer in the Constitution, which talks about freedom of religion, freedom of the press and I'm a defender of that. I fully understood that power can be addictive and power can be corrosive and so an independent voice holds people like me in check and so I think it's very important."
Bush admits struggling with the way he was sometimes portrayed in the media during his own presidency. "I mean sure there's a caricature that has developed. People didn't think I could read and I've written two books that are best sellers, now a third," he said.
The September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. transformed Bush's presidency into a wartime administration.
"I can vividly remember what the country was like after 9/11," he told VOA."People were, you know, very supportive of U.S. action to protect us. People understood that threats overseas be taken seriously."
But he says American resolve to defeat terrorism is increasingly under pressure.
"Both my successors have said ISIS must be defeated and they understand the threat to the homeland, that's good. Then the question's got to be asked, ‘Do we have the policies in place to defeat them?' "
Despite the sometimes contentious differences over political and cultural issues in the U.S. today, the former president doesn't believe the divide is as wide or as troubling as it was in the 1960s.
"When I got out of college the divisions in this country were, in my opinion, much worse than they are today," he said, reflecting on the turbulent time when opposition to the war in Vietnam and demands for civil rights sparked violence in the streets.
"This country gets divided at times but somehow has had the remarkable ability to work its way out of the divisions. And so I'm very optimistic about the future of the country."
Statue of Liberty with the World Trade Center burning in the background.
