In First Major Post-White House U.S. Address, Bush Refuses To Criticize Obama

May 29, 2009 5:21 a.m. EST

Detroit, MI (AHN) - Giving his first major speech in the U.S. since leaving office, former President George W. Bush defended his anti-terror policies on Thursday during a meeting with the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan.

"I made the decision within the law to keep the American people safe," the 43rd president told a large crowd in Benton Harbor, according to WSBT TV. "The information we gained saved lives. And, as for Saddam Hussein--the world is better without that man in power."

But Bush also made clear, "Nothing I'm saying is meant to criticize my successor. I wish him all the best."

There has been intense debate in recent weeks about President Barack Obama's decision to end Bush's controversial national security policies such as harsh interrogation tactics.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has repeatedly said that waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning that critics say is torture, had prevented attacks on U.S. soil after 9/11. He also said that Obama was endangering the safety of Americans with his decisions, such as declassifying Justice Department memos that had authorized aggressive interrogations.

Bush has refrained from joining the contentious exchanges between Cheney and Obama officials. The 62-year-old former commander-in-chief had faced historic disapproval ratings in the end of his second term, due to factors that included an unprecedented financial bailout, increasing criticisms of the strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and his anti-terror policies.

He currently lives in a new home in Dallas, where he lived in the years before becoming governor of Texas and where he recently launched a post-presidential office.

Apart from speeches -- of which there have been only two other major addresses, the first in Alberta and another in China -- he has occupied himself with the completion of his George W. Bush Presidential Center on the campus of Southern Methodist University. He is also in the process of writing a book about 12 crucial decision he made during his two-term presidency. The book will be published by the Crown Publishing Group. in 2010.

Bush is scheduled to speak on Friday in a forum alongside former President Bill Clinton at the Metro Toronto Convention Center.