In His Own Words

President Bush did an interview with journalists from the 'Guardian UK.'

As you know Bush is presently making the rounds in England.

Bush answered questions on Iraq, Iran, his future, etc. etc.

Here are the excerpts on what Bush believes will be his legacy, and what he will do when he leaves the White House.

We have at least two tasks in reading the excerpts. The first is simply trying to decipher, or understand them. By understand I mean, trying to make sense out of the assemblage of words.

The second task is to try to take what does seem to be understandable and compare it to reality. Here the gap is formidable.

Legacy

"First, I'm not going to be around to see it. There's no such thing as objective, short-term history. It takes a while to be able to have enough time to look back to see why decisions were made and what their consequences were. I'd hope it'd be of somebody who would use the influence of the United States to help transform societies by working on disease and hunger and freedom. And the liberation of 50 million people from the clutches of barbaric regimes is noteworthy, at a minimum.

You've got to have a set of beliefs that are the foundation for your very being. Otherwise, these currents and tides, and 24-hour news, and politics will kind of leave you adrift. And I tell people that when I get home, I'm going to look in the mirror and say I didn't sacrifice my core beliefs to satisfy critics or pundits.

And when I talk about freedom, it's not just freedom from tyranny; it's freedom from HIV/Aids, freedom from malaria, freedom from hunger. For two reasons. One, it's in our national interests that we defeat hopelessness. The only way a suicide bomber can recruit is when he finds somebody hopeless. And secondly, it's in our moral interests. A nation is a better nation when it feeds the hungry and takes care of the diseased."

After the White House

"I'm going to think about writing a book. I'm going to build a presidential library with a 'freedom institute' ... not, you know, like some headquarters for the Republican party, but aimed at promoting the universal values that need to be defended. I'm very worried about isolationism and protectionism."