President Bush on Iran: “It’s not going to happen on my watch”

Let’s see here, Mark Silva — that would be you back there. Q Thank you, Mr. President. I may want to apologize in advance because — THE PRESIDENT: Please do. Q — I can’t help but read your body language this morning, Mr. President. You seem somehow dispirited, somewhat dispirited. THE PRESIDENT: I think you need to apologize for advance — (laughter.) This is like — all of a sudden, it’s like Psychology 101, you know? (Laughter.) Q A question related to that, sir, is, twice now, on Iran and Iraq, the facts have failed you on things that you’ve been outspoken on telling the American people. Senator Harry Reid is saying on the war spending issue that “the President is not leveling with the American people.” THE PRESIDENT: On the war spending issue? Q Yes. Are you, in fact, troubled by — THE PRESIDENT: Why don’t you clarify that for me? Q Well, are you — THE PRESIDENT: What aspect of it? That I don’t think we ought to fund the troops? Q No, sir. THE PRESIDENT: I think we need to fund the troops. I submitted a supplemental last February. Anyway — Q My question, sir, is, are you feeling troubled about your standing here yesterday, about perhaps facing a credibility gap with the American people? THE PRESIDENT: No, I’m feeling pretty spirited, pretty good about life, and have made the decision to come before you so I can explain the NIE. And I have said Iran is dangerous, and the NIE doesn’t do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world. Quite the contrary. I’m using this NIE as an opportunity to continue to rally our colleagues and allies. Q Do you think it — THE PRESIDENT: It makes it — the NIE makes it clear that the strategy we have used in the past is effective. And the reason why we need to make sure that strategy goes forward for the future is because if Iran shows up with a nuclear weapon at some point in time, the world is going to say, what happened to them in 2007? How come they couldn’t see the impending danger? What caused them not to understand that a country that once had a weapons program could reconstitute the weapons program? How come they couldn’t see that the important first step in developing a weapon is the capacity to be able to enrich uranium? How come they didn’t know that with that capacity, that knowledge could be passed on to a covert program? What blinded them to the realities of the world? And it’s not going to happen on my watch, Mark. And so, kind of Psychology 101 ain’t working. It’s just not working. I understand the issues, I clearly see the problems, and I’m going to use the NIE to continue to rally the international community for the sake of peace. Thank you very much.