presidential address

my fellow americans: i have finally realized that we are in the midst of an unmitigated and utter catastrophe in iraq. after an occupation of almost five years, hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives lost, the conditions on the ground remain significantly worse for iraqi citizens today than in the days before we invaded. i cannot unmake history, but i am going to try and right some of the errors and sins of my administration while i can. i have instructed vice-president dick cheney to resign effective immediately and am nominating senator chuck hagel to replace him. vice-president hagel will be in charge of middle east policy including the un-occupation of iraq. he will be free to suggest a replacement for condaleeza rice, who i fired this afternoon. i now realize that she was the most incompetent and inappropriate secretary of state in the history of the union.

once vice-president hagel is settled in, hopefully before december of 2007 i will be resigning from office. i intend to turn myself over to the war crimes court at the hague. as a christian i believe that we all need to take responsibility for and accept the consequences of our actions.

thank you all.

george w bush
1600 pennsylavia avenue
washington dc