{"id":13133,"date":"2013-06-01T21:06:42","date_gmt":"2013-06-01T17:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/?p=13133"},"modified":"2013-06-01T21:06:42","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T17:06:42","slug":"i-dont-feel-sorry-for-them-george-bush-risks-wrath-of-injured-veterans-saying-they-volunteered-their-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/en\/?p=13133","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I don&#8217;t feel sorry for them&#8217;: George Bush risks wrath of injured veterans saying they volunteered their service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bu3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13131\" alt=\"bu3\" src=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bu3.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bu3.jpg 634w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bu3-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bu3-450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 634px) 100vw, 634px\" \/><\/a>He was the most powerful man on the planet for eight years. Now former US president George W Bush has spoken frankly about the\u00a0 perils of leadership, saying holding on to power for too long can be \u2018corrosive\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bush, who served two terms in the White House, said he thought being in charge could \u2018dim your vision\u2019 because you get carried away with fame.<\/p>\n<p>He admitted that while he was president he came to understand how \u2018fame can become very addictive\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear whether the comments will help to rehabilitate his image.\u00a0 A poll last year found he is the most unpopular living president, with 54 per cent saying they had an unfavourable view of him.<\/p>\n<p>After he came into office in 2001, Mr Bush embarked on two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have resulted in the deaths of 6,471 American troops. Some 32,000 US soldiers were injured in Iraq and 18,000 in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bush was speaking to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/05\/30\/george-w-bush-bike_n_3359824.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Huffington Post<\/a> during the third annual Warrior 100K challenge, a three-day mountain bike ride hosted at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The 75 riders who took part included 13 veterans who have been physically or psychologically wounded during their service in Iraq or Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if he felt responsible for their injuries, Mr Bush said: \u2018Well, to a certain extent you can\u2019t help it, because had I not made decisions I made, they wouldn\u2019t have been in combat.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018On the other hand, every one of these men were volunteers. None of them are angry. They don\u2019t blame anybody. And so I believe strongly that the decisions I made were the right decisions.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u2018I don\u2019t feel sorry for them, because they don\u2019t feel sorry for themselves.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He was the most powerful man on the planet for eight years. Now former US&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,143,137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-usa","category-world","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}