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George Bush's memoirs reveal how he considered attacks on Iran and Syria | World news | The Guardian
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Ewen MacAskill and Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 November 2010 20.54 GMT
Article history
George Bush 'Whatever the verdict on my presidency, I'm comfortable with the fact that I won't be around to hear it'.
George Bush ordered the Pentagon to plan an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and considered a covert attack on Syria, the former president reveals in his memoirs.
Bush, in the 497-page Decision Points, a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian in advance of its publication in the US tomorrow, writes of Iran: "I directed the Pentagon to study what would be necessary for a strike." He adds: "This would be to stop the bomb clock, at least temporarily."
Such an attack would almost certainly have produced a conflagration in the Middle East that could have seen Iran retaliating by blocking oil supplies and unleashing militias and sympathisers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
Bush also discussed with his national security team either an air strike or a covert special forces raid on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility at the request of Israel.
Bush admits: Tony Blair was my closest foreign ally
Waterboarding 'helped to break up terror plots in UK'
Iraq was the right thing to do, says former president
Ewen MacAskill and Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 November 2010 20.54 GMT
Article history
George Bush 'Whatever the verdict on my presidency, I'm comfortable with the fact that I won't be around to hear it'.
George Bush ordered the Pentagon to plan an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and considered a covert attack on Syria, the former president reveals in his memoirs.
Bush, in the 497-page Decision Points, a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian in advance of its publication in the US tomorrow, writes of Iran: "I directed the Pentagon to study what would be necessary for a strike." He adds: "This would be to stop the bomb clock, at least temporarily."
Such an attack would almost certainly have produced a conflagration in the Middle East that could have seen Iran retaliating by blocking oil supplies and unleashing militias and sympathisers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
Bush also discussed with his national security team either an air strike or a covert special forces raid on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility at the request of Israel.