Bush backed away from saying the CIA was “just guessing” in a gloomy July forecast for Iraq, but again dismissed the US intelligence community’s warnings that the country might at best only cling to tenuous stability.
“This is a report that talks about possibilities about what can happen in Iraq, not probabilities. I used an unfortunate word, ‘guess.’ I should have used, ‘estimate,” he said.
“The CIA came and said, ‘This is a possibility, this is a possibility, and this is a possibility.’ But what’s important for the American people to hear is reality,” said Bush.
Another Bush Flip-Flop
- Date: September 24, 2004
- Author: Bob Griendling