Bush’s best defense may be his father

Former President George H.W. Bush took on Arab critics of his son, the current President Bush, during a testy exchange Tuesday at a leadership conference in the capital of this U.S. ally.

“My son is an honest man,” Bush told members of the audience, who harshly criticized the younger Bush’s foreign policy.

“We do not respect your son. We do not respect what he’s doing all over the world,” a woman in the audience bluntly told Bush after his speech.

Bush, 82, appeared stunned as others in the audience whooped and whistled.

The oil-rich Persian Gulf used to be safe territory for the former president, who brought Arab leaders together in a coalition that drove then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s troops from Kuwait in 1991.

But gratitude for the elder Bush was overshadowed at the conference by hostility toward his son, whose invasion of Iraq and support for Israel are deeply unpopular in the region.

The hostile comments came during a question-and-answer session after Bush finished a folksy address on leadership by telling the audience how deeply hurt he feels when his presidential son is criticized.

“This son is not going to back away,” Bush said, his voice quavering. “He’s not going to change his view because some poll says this or some poll says that, or some heartfelt comments from the lady who feels deeply in her heart about something. You can’t be president of the United States and conduct yourself if you’re going to cut and run. This is going to work out in Iraq.”

Bush also told the audience its derisive hoots were mild compared with the reaction he got in Germany in the 1980s after persuading that country to deploy U.S. nuclear missiles.

He told the audience he was extremely proud of his sons, the current president and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

One audience member asked the former president what advice he gives his son on Iraq. Bush said the presence of reporters prevented an answer.

“If I did what you ask me to do -- tell you what advice I give my son -- that would then be flashed all over the world,” he said.

“If it happened to deviate one iota, one little inch, from what the president’s doing or thinks he ought to be doing, it would be terrible. It’d bring great anxiety not only to him but to his supporters.”