Is our presidents learning?

I suppose everyone has a punch-the-wall-with-your-face moment in this interview. Here’s mine:

GIBSON: You said you were not going to be in the business of nation-building. And so much of what you had to do was nation-building.

BUSH: Well, what I said was, in the course of a debate, I said the military shouldn’t be used to build nations. In this case, it turns out the military, in my judgment, was needed to remove threats to our security, and after that removal, the military, as well as our diplomatic corps, needed to help rebuild after tyrannical situations.

I’m not sure precisely what Bush means by “our diplomatic corps,” but he seems not to recall that one of the major problems with the Iraq War — aside from its very occurrence — was that the the advice of “the diplomatic corps” was studiously ignored while the US military — or, to be more accurate, the civilians in charge of the US military — were given near-total responsibility for planning its aftermath. I think it’s easy to overstate the likelihood that, say, The Future of Iraq Project would have prevented the country from being thoroughly “cauldronized” a la Ledeen, but there’s no question that by allowing Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith and friends to do anything more complicated than working a toaster, Bush ensured that an ill-advised five-year war would turn into an ill-advised ten year war. It’s also worth noting that if Bush — in his “judgment” — placed such a high value on using armed force to carry out reconstruction projects, perhaps he should not have sat around with his thumb up his ass while Paul Bremer dismantled the Iraqi military.

Of course, rather than follow up on any of this — or, better yet, abandoning the interview for the nearest bar and a stiff drink — Charlie Gibson immediately shifted the conversation to the question of why Bush describes his presidency as “joyful.”