Former US president George W. Bush said that he doesn't know what he will do in the long term but that he will write a book that will ask people to consider what they would do if they had to protect the United States as president. Speaking at an invitation-only event here titled a “Conversation with George W. Bush”, which attracted close to 2,000 guests who paid US$3,100 per table, Bush said Tuesday it will be fun to write and that “it's going to be (about) the 12 toughest decisions I had to make.” “I'm going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened,” Bush said. “I want people to understand what it was like to sit in the Oval Office and have them come in and say we have captured Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, the alleged killer of a guy named Danny Pearl because he was simply Jewish, and we think we have information on further attacks on the United States,” Bush said. Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was kidnapped and slain by Islamic militants in Pakistan. Bush didn't specify what the 12 hardest decisions were but said Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein in power. Bush is unpopular in Canada but less so in oil-rich Alberta, the country's most conservative province and one sometimes called the Texas of the north. About 200 people protested outside the event; four were arrested. Some protesters threw shoes at an effigy of Bush.The event's organizers declined to say how much Bush was paid to speak at the gathering. Bush was also full of jokes during his appearance. He joked that he would do more speeches to pay for his new house in Dallas. “I actually paid for a house last fall. I think I'm the only American to have bought a house in the fall of 2008,” he quipped. Bush declined to critique the Obama administration in his first speech since leaving office in January. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has said that Obama's decisions threatened America's safety. “I'm not going to spend my time criticizing him. There are plenty of critics in the arena,” Bush said Tuesday. “He deserves my silence.” Bush said he wants Obama to succeed and said it's important that he has that support. Conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has said he hoped Obama would fail. “I love my country a lot more than I love politics,” Bush said. “I think it is essential that he be helped in office.”
