Sacrifice

Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night. I mean, we've got a fantastic economy here in the United States, but yet, when you think about the psychology of the country, it is somewhat down because of this war.

Now, here in Washington when I say, "What do you mean by that?," they say, "Well, why don't you raise their taxes; that'll cause there to be a sacrifice." I strongly oppose that. If that's the kind of sacrifice people are talking about, I'm not for it because raising taxes will hurt this growing economy. And one thing we want during this war on terror is for people to feel like their life's moving on, that they're able to make a living and send their kids to college and put more money on the table. And you know, I am interested and open-minded to the suggestion, but this is going to be - this is like saying why don't you make sacrifices in the Cold War? I mean, Iraq is only a part of a larger ideological struggle. But it's a totally different kind of war, than ones we're used to.

Iraq

Yeah, you know, that's an interesting question. I don't quite view it as the broken egg; I view it as the cracked egg -- that - where we still have a chance to move beyond the broken egg. And I thought long and hard about the decision, Jim. Obviously it's a big decision for this theater in the war on terror, and you know, if I didn't believe we could keep the egg from fully cracking, I wouldn't ask 21,000 kids - additional kids to go into Iraq to reinforce those troops that are there.

16 January 2007

No question that the enemy has tried to spread sectarian violence. They use violence as a tool to do that.

March 22, 2006

I strongly believe what we're doing is the right thing. If I didn't believe it -- I'm going to repeat what I said before -- I'd pull the troops out, nor if I believed we could win, I would pull the troops out.

April 6, 2006

I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there's a strong will for democracy.

interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Sept. 24, 2006

…Nobody's accused me of having a real sophisticated vocabulary. I understand that. And maybe their – their words are more sophisticated than mine, but when you pull out before the job is done, that's cut and run as far as I'm concerned.

17 October 2006

Staying the Course

We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course.

15-Dec-03

And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course.

13-Apr-04

And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it.

16-Apr-04

And so we’ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course.

05-Apr-04

We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq.

04-Aug-06

We will stay the course.

30-Aug-06

Well, listen, we've never been "stay the course", George. We have been, "We will complete the mission, we will do our job and help achieve the goal, but we're constantly adjusting the tactics . .

23-Oct-2006

Holding six-party talks with North Korea

One has a stronger hand when there's more people playing your same cards.

History & Legacy

You never know what your history is going to be like until long after you're gone.

May 5, 2006

I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there's a strong will for democracy.

interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Sept. 24, 2006

There's a lot of books out there—a lot. I don't know if I've set the record, or not, but I guess it means that I've made some hard decisions and will continue to make hard decisions. . . somebody ought to add up the number of pages that have been written about my administration.

Newsweek 16-Oct-06

My advice to the next President.

West Texas

I like my buddies from west Texas. I liked them when I was young, I liked them then I was middle-age, I liked them before I was president, and I like them during president, and I like them after president.

Feb. 1, 2006

If people want to get to know me better, they've got to know my parents and the values my parents instilled in me, and the fact that I was raised in West Texas, in the middle of the desert, a long way away from anywhere, hardly. There's a certain set of values you learn in that experience.

May 5, 2006

I think -- tide turning -- see, as I remember -- I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of -- it's easy to see a tide turn -- did I say those words?

June 14, 2006

Katrina

And I suspect that what you'll see, Toby, is there will be a momentum, momentum will be gathered. Houses will begat jobs, jobs will begat houses.

Aug. 28, 2006