Former President Bush: 'I hate Saddam'


Former President Bush on Saddam Hussein: "His word is no good and he's a
brute."

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former President George Bush says he has "nothing but
hatred" for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but he has "no regrets" the
coalition forces during the 1991 Gulf War did not go to Baghdad to get him.

"I know what would have happened. I know that the coalition would have
shattered," Bush told CNN's Paula Zahn in an exclusive interview. "My only
regret is that I was wrong, as was every other leader, in thinking that
Saddam Hussein would be gone."

He said military commanders were given a specific objective to liberate
Kuwait of Iraqi forces and that they carried out that mission. "We told our
military commanders, 'Here's your objective.' They saluted from halfway
around the world and said, 'Mission complete, sir.' And that's the way it
was, and that's the way it should have been. "Now, am I happy Saddam Hussein
is there? Absolutely not. But am I going to be moved by the Monday morning
critics who now say we should have done it differently [when they] were
totally silent back then? No." Reconciling The War
Tune in for our three-part series "George H. W. Bush: Reconciling The War" on
<A HREF="http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/american.morning/">American Morning with Paula Zahn</A>, Monday through Wednesday, from 7 to 10 a.m.
EDT.
    Bush conducted the interview about 500 miles off the mainland of Japan
near an island where he was shot down as a Navy pilot during World War II.

Bush spoke candidly about how that war experience helped shape his presidency
-- and most openly about his disgust for the Iraqi leader.

"I hate Saddam Hussein," the former president told Zahn. "I don't hate a lot
of people. I don't hate easily, but I think he's, as I say, his word is no
good and he's a brute. He's used poison gas on his own people. So, there's
nothing redeeming about this man." He added: "I have nothing but hatred in my
heart for him.

But he's got a lot of problems, but immortality isn't one of them." As for
what the country should do with the Iraqi leader now, he said, "That's the
problem facing the president of the United States of America, not me." That
president is his oldest son, George W. Bush. However, the father would not
discuss what kind of advice he has given his son and he would not talk about
policy issues.

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