December 29, 2006 [LINK / comment]
No, but that's the impression conveyed by Bob Woodward in the Washington Post, and on all the TV yak shows. He interviewed President Ford in recent years, but in none of the audio clips I've heard does Ford declare the war to be a mistake per se. Woodward, you may recall, was criticized for some questionable interviews with former CIA chief Bill Casey, which were not published until after he died.
A more accurate sense of [what] Ford believed can be gleaned from Thomas M. DeFrank's interviews with Ford published in the Daily News:
Saddam Hussein was an evil person and there was justification to get rid of him, but we shouldn't have put the basis on weapons of mass destruction. That was a bad mistake. Where does [Bush] get his advice?
That pretty much says it all. Gerald Ford was on the ball right up until the end of his life. Hat tip to Power Line Blog.
Speaking of Saddam Hussein, his execution could come any day now. There will almost certainly be a surge in violence wrought by Sunni insurgents in Iraq, and the possibility of a terrorist attack on U.S. interests cannot be discounted. Nevertheless, for the sake of justice and, therefore, for the sake of ultimate peace, Saddam must pay the ultimate price for his crimes against humanity.