Unraveling and exposing the works of the Bush administration may not be easy.
The Iraq war is distinctly Mr. Bush’s legacy to America. However many of the details of the cause of that war are not known to the American voter. It is anyone’s guess as to if the cause of that war will ever be made public. At this time, the Iraq war is the only major war fought by America, whose cause is unknown.
In 2003, much ado was given to “weapons of mass destruction(WMDs)”. But the WMD cause of the Iraq war turned out to be much ado about nothing. The WMD assertion failed the test of American and world minds. Afterwards, strangely enough, the source of the WMD assertion did not get back to the American people to explain the “downfall” of the WMD assertion.
Legacy writers are likely to be at a disadvantage when trying to compose the Bush legacy. Mr. Bush’s Secretary of State believed that the American people would soon start to thank Mr. Bush for what he has done.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had this to say:
(CNN) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that despite President Bush’s low approval ratings, people will soon “start to thank this president for what he’s done.”
“So we can sit here and talk about the long record, but what I would say to you is that this president has faced tougher circumstances than perhaps at any time since the end of World War II, and he has delivered policies that are going to stand the test of time,” Rice said in an interview that aired on CBS’ “Sunday Morning.”
The secretary of state brushed off reports that suggest the United States’ image is suffering abroad. She praised the administration’s ability to change the conversation in the Middle East. …
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/28/rice.administration/?iref=mpstoryview
Mr. Bush did indeed face tough “circumstances”:
Iraq War
Guantanamo Detainees
Economic Controls
But, the Bush team may have played a critical role in the making of those tough circumstances.
Tough circumstances followed the victory of the Bush team over Saddam Hussein’s government. For years, there was no law and no order for Iraq’s non-combatants. Some Americans, prior to the sending of troops to Iraq, questioned the size of that troop force.
Tough circumstances followed the incarceration of Guantanamo detainees. There may not have been an EVIDENCE ROOM with adequate content. Not even the word of the President of the United States of America is sufficient to convict a person in an American court of law. American prosecutors found hundreds of Guantanamo cases they did not want to prosecute.
Tough circumstances followed the deregulation of America’s financial system. Country killing conditions were the results of financial deregulation. This gave the Republicans two out of two of the worst financial conditions America has ever experienced.
America should certainly remember the administration of the latter-day neocons for a long time to come. Mr. George W. Bush should be a shoo-in for worst president of all time. U.S.News & WORLD REPORT continues its count.
http://www.usnews.com/polls/who-was-the-worst-president/results.html
July 7, 2009 at 7:44 pm |
You missed a critical situation the Bush administration faced: 9/11.
Some of Rice’s comments may not be able to be realistically viewed until years from now to see the results, or for certain items to become declassified. In that, we can only rush to judgement. Something I won’t do.
I will agree that the invasion of Iraq will go down as a blunder on just about every level. Al Qaeda, and their Taliban allies were behind 9/11. The world gave us the red carpet right into Afghanistan, and righfully so. Instead of finishing that job, we nearly bankrupted the country by invading another country, unrelated to 9/11.
July 7, 2009 at 7:47 pm |
BTW, if you look at the polling, there were more people who said Washington was a worse president than 20 of his 24 successors. I’ve got to toss this one.