President Ford was from a different time. A time of modesty. He would never stand up and denounce a sitting president. It didn't matter if the President was Republican or Democrat. He understand the niceties of politics from an era before Tom "the Hammer" Delay and Newt Gingrich. So, I find it interesting that he did an interview with Bob Woodward and asked for it to be published after his death. President Ford was a practical man in my opinion. He believed in negotiation something the neo-cons don't believe is necessary. Therefore, it is no surprise that he didn't support the invasion.
From WaPo:
"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."
In a conversation that veered between the current realities of a war in the Middle East and the old complexities of the war in Vietnam whose bitter end he presided over as president, Ford took issue with the notion of the United States entering a conflict in service of the idea of spreading democracy.
