Bush to write a book about 12 toughest decisions

Former US president George Bush plans to write a “what would you have done?” book about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office.

In his first speech since leaving the White House, Mr Bush also refused to criticise Barack Obama because his successor “deserves my silence”.

Mr Bush avoided criticism of the Obama administration – a path not followed by former vice-president Dick Cheney, who has said Mr Obama’s decisions threatened America’s safety.

“I’m not going to spend my time criticising him (Mr Obama). There are plenty of critics in the arena,” Mr Bush told an audience in Alberta, Canada. “He deserves my silence.”

About 200 people protested outside the speech in Calgary. Four were arrested. Some protesters threw shoes at an effigy of Mr Bush.

Mr Bush said he wanted Mr Obama to succeed and said it was important that he had that support. Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh had said he hoped Obama would fail.

“I love my country a lot more than I love politics,” Mr Bush said. “I think it is essential that he be helped in office.”

The invitation-only event, entitled a “Conversation with George W Bush” attracted nearly 2,000 guests who paid €2,370 per table. Mr Bush received two standing ovations from the predominantly business crowd.

Mr Bush is unpopular in Canada but less so in oil-rich Alberta, the country’s most conservative province sometimes called the Texas of the north.

“This is my maiden voyage. My first speech since I was the president of the US and I couldn’t think of a better place to give it than Calgary, Canada,” Mr Bush said.

The event’s organisers declined to say how much Mr Bush was paid to speak at the gathering.

Mr Bush said that he did not know what he would do in the long term but that he would write a book that would ask people to consider what they would do if they had to protect the US as president.

He said it would be fun to write and that “it’s going to be (about) the 12 toughest decisions I had to make”.

“I’m going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there’s an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened,” he said.

“I want people to understand what it was like to sit in the Oval Office and have them come in and say we have captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, the alleged killer of a guy named Danny Pearl because he was simply Jewish, and we think we have information on further attacks on the US.”

Mr Bush did not specify what the 12 hardest decisions were but said Iraq was better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

He was also full of jokes during his appearance in Calgary, saying that he would do more speeches to pay for his new house in Dallas, Texas.

“I actually paid for a house last fall. I think I’m the only American to have bought a house in the fall of 2008,” he quipped.

Mr Bush seemed to enjoy himself even though the event started half an hour later than expected because of tight security.

“I’ll sit here all day,” he said during a question-and-answer session. “I’m flattered people even want to hear me in the first place.”

Protesters, however, were clearly out to make Mr Bush feel unwelcome. They carried signs reading “No to US Crimes Against Humanity”, “Indict Bush For War Crimes,” “Canada Is Not Bush Country”, and “Shoe Him The Door” – a reference to the Iraqi journalist who famously hurled his shoes at Mr Bush during a December news conference in Baghdad.

Mr Bush’s speech came nearly six years to the day after the invasion of Iraq, said protest organiser Peggy Askin.

“He shouldn’t be able to go anywhere in the world and just present himself as a private citizen,” she said. “We do not have any use for bringing war criminals into this country. It’s an affront.”