DAYTON, Ohio — Former President Geroge W. Bush said Thursday he’s enjoying being away from politics and won’t get involved in current debates about his successor or Washington.

“I will not be criticizing President (Barack) Obama,” Bush told a Veterans Day tribute audience. “As a matter of fact, we wish him well. We’re all Americans, and we want to succeed.”

He said he didn’t miss Washington, “all the politics, all the name calling ... the spitballs.”

But he told some 1,500 people, many of them veterans, at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in southwest Ohio that he does miss serving as commander in chief.

With interviews and speeches, Bush has been vigorously promoting his newly released memoir “Decision Points. He focused his speech Thursday on parts of the book dealing with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the support and inspiration he drew from wounded warriors, families of those killed during his presidency, and the military.

“America is a magnificent country that produces patriots,” he said.