<p><br /> Former President George W Bush's memoir was rolled out in bookstores in the United States.<br /> </p><p><br /> Bush's book, "Decision Points," is full of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes details of eight eventful years that began with the September 11th in 2001 attacks and ended with an economic meltdown in which "I felt like the captain of a sinking ship."<br /> </p><p><br /> Bush also strongly defended the use of waterboarding as critical to his efforts to prevent a repeat of the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the United States. He wrote waterboarding was limited to three detainees and led to intelligence breakthroughs that thwarted attacks.<br /> </p><p><br /> The book also tells of many errors involving the Iraq campaign and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction there, despite numerous intelligence reports pointing to their existence.<br /> </p><p><br /> "No one was more shocked or angry than I was when we didn't find the weapons. I had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do," Bush wrote.<br /> </p><p><br /> The memoir includes the revelation that controversial Vice President Dick Cheney had volunteered to step down in 2003 so Bush could pick someone else as his 2004 campaign running mate.<br /> </p><p><br /> Bush said he considered the offer, writing that while Cheney "helped with important parts of our base, he had become a lightning rod for criticism from the media and the left."<br /> </p><p><br /> The former president also wrote he considered ordering a US military strike against a suspected Syrian nuclear facility at Israel's request in 2007 but ultimately opted against it. Israel eventually destroyed the facility, which Syria denied was aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability.<br /> </p><p><br /> But in Dallas, Texas at least a thousand people lined up outside a bookstore overnight, where Bush appeared later for a booksigning to launch the book.<br /> </p>
