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Bush Sr. defends his son AP 22 November 2006
ABU DHABI — Former US president George H.W. Bush was forced here yesterday into a defence of his son, current US President George W. Bush, whose Mideast policies were derided by a hostile audience.
“My son is an honest man,” . Bush told the delegates attending a leadership conference here “He is working hard for peace. It takes a lot of guts to get up and tell a father about his son in those terms when I just told you the thing that matters in my heart is my family
.”
Bush added: “How come everybody wants to come to the United States if the United States is so bad?”
Although former leader, who served as president from 1989-1993, claimed to have faced tougher audiences, he conceded that attacks on his sons hurt more than those on him. As curiosity mounts regarding the advice James Baker, the senior Bush’s secretary of state,
Bush Sr defends son is giving Washington on the war in the Iraq, the former president declined to reveal how he had counselled his son on the conflict.
The Gulf used to be safe territory for former president Bush, an oil man who brought Arab leaders together in a coalition that drove Saddam Hussein’s troops out of Kuwait in 1991.
But gratitude for the elder Bush, who served as president from 1989-93, was overshadowed by the foreign policy of his son, whose invasion of Iraq and support for Israel are deeply unpopular here.
“We do not respect your son. We do not respect what he’s doing all over the world,” a woman audience member bluntly told Bush after his keynote speech.
Bush appeared stunned as the audience of young business leaders whooped and whistled in approval.
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