Former US president Jimmy Carter has dedicated his life after the White House to conflict resolution around the world. Former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton have campaigned together on behalf of communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina. So how does US President George W. Bush imagine spending his retirement years?
"I can just envision getting in the car, getting bored, going down to the ranch," he says.
He also has big plans for making money.
"I'll give some speeches, to replenish the ol' coffers," says Bush, who is already estimated to be worth US$20 million. "I don't know what my dad gets -- it's more than 50 to 75 [thousand dollars a speech], and Clinton's making a lot of money."
The insights into Bush's ambitions once he steps down from the most powerful job on Earth in January 2009 are contained in a series of interviews he gave to a journalist from GQ magazine. It may be that the writer, Robert Draper, comes from Texas, like his subject, but whatever the reason, Bush has chosen to be singularly open with the author and provide a rare glimpse into the inner life of a very private president.
During the course of six one-hour interviews, Bush, feet up on his desk, munching on low-fat hotdogs, tells Draper of the loneliness of the US commander-in-chief.
"Self-pity is the worst thing that can happen to a presidency. This is a job where you can have a lot of self-pity," Bush says.
When it all gets too much for the president, his wife Laura storms to the rescue.
"She reminds me that I decided to do this," he tells Draper.
The interviews came after Draper lobbied the president for several years to give him access, arguing that he would write the first draft of history on the Bush presidency.
The book to emerge from their conversations will be published today, but an early taste was given in Sunday's New York Times.
The book's title, Dead Certain, is ominously ambiguous, given the 3,728 US personnel -- and by some estimates more than 70,000 civilians -- who have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. For those around the world who are already perplexed by Bush's strategy in Iraq, his comments to Draper will not be reassuring.
The president says to the writer that one of the failings of his prosecution of the war was that Saddam Hussein's army was broken up, in contravention of Washington policy, leading to looting and chaos across Iraq.
"The policy was to keep the army intact; [it] didn't happen," Bush says.
But, Draper points out, it was Paul Bremer, the man chosen by the president to administer country after the invasion, who ordered the disbandment of the Iraqi army. What did Bush think when he learnt of that?
"Yeah, I can't remember. I'm sure I said: `This is the policy -- what happened?'"
It gets worse. Bush reveals that whenever he feels depressed about the death toll in Iraq, he turns to God for comfort.
"I've got God's shoulder to cry on, and I cry a lot," he says. "I'll bet I've shed more tears than you can count."
Bush says when his time in office is up, he will be only 62 and "really young."
Apart from the joy of getting bored, he is looking forward to setting up a "fantastic freedom institute in Dallas" for young democratic leaders around the world.
There is at least one point on which the president and his detractors will agree. In a moment of breathtaking candor, Bush laments the fact that the media no longer listens to him.
"I've been here too long," he says.
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