Interview of the President by TF1 Television - Part II
November 8th, 2007November 7, 2007
Interview of the President by TF1 Television
Map Room
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Q So to a certain extent, you did contribute to giving greater power to Iran, because it no longer is facing its hated enemy on the other side. So now is there a true threat in Iran, and are you ready now to invade Iran as you did with Afghanistan and Iraq? So it is indeed true that Vice President — is it true that Vice President Cheney has a plan for that?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know where you’re getting all these rumors — there must be some weird things going on in Europe these days — because I have made it abundantly clear, now is the time to deal with a true threat to world peace — that’s Iran — and to do it diplomatically and peacefully. And that’s what I’m going to spend a lot of time on with President Sarkozy. But of course we want to solve these problems peacefully.
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Q But if it doesn’t work, if the sanctions and the threats do not work, what happens?
THE PRESIDENT: We are going to — as I said, all options are on the table. But the objective is to make them work. I’m not so sure I agree with your hypothesis, that “if they don’t work.” I’m the kind of guy that says, let’s make sure they do work.
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Q In the past we used to say that the American Dream was freedom, but today it seems to be repression, more self-focused society.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s absurd to say the American Dream is repression. Freedom is the absolute we’re helping people achieve. That’s — think about what’s happening with 25 million people in Iraq, or 25 million people in Afghanistan, or the fact that the United States is freeing people from the scourge of HIV/AIDS. We’re spending $30 billion, when Congress passes my budget, to help people on HIV/AIDS — or the fact that we’ve got a $1.6 billion program to help people who are — families who are suffering as a result of a child dying from malaria. In other words, we’ve got a very aggressive freedom agenda. And if you come to the United States, you’ll find that you can practice your religion any way you see fit, that this is an open society and a free society.
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You’re really not going to know the history of the Bush administration until long after you and I are dead. There’s no such thing as accurate short-term history. It takes a while for people to see the results of decisions having been made.
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Q We saw a French President spend his summer vacations this year in the United States, so when will George W. Bush spend his vacations in France?
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. As you know, I’m a — I’ve got a piece of property I love in Texas –
Q It’s large.