George Bush's Legacy
Real successes of the George W. Bush presidency:
- Got rid of Saddam Hussein (but at such an enormous cost !).
- Got Libya to give up it's nuclear program (but apparently it had bought the
hardware and then done nothing with it).
Claimed successes that really are failures:
- Tax cut (but too slanted to the wealthy, and financed by borrowing instead
of by cutting size of government; government spending increased wildly).
- No terror attacks on US soil after 9/11 (but terrorists have killed 4500 US
military since 9/11; they had no need to come to US soil to accomplish that.
And they've attacked Spain, England, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc.)
Failures:
- Doubled the national debt (just as Ronald Reagan did; whatever happened to
Republicans being fiscally conservative ? And added more hidden costs to be dealt
with in the future: replacement of military equipment, and long-term health care for
wounded veterans from the wars).
National debt as percent of GDP, by president,
percent of national debt added by each president.
- Did not capture or kill Osama bin Laden.
- Iraq war (destroyed the country, killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, two
million refugees, ethnic cleansing, spent hundreds of billions of dollars for little result,
didn't find any WMD's, found only the faintest links to Al Qaeda,
didn't create a stable democracy, created huge worries for Turkey and
Saudi Arabia, increased power of Iran).
[How appropriate: on George Bush's last visit to Iraq in 12/2008, an Iraqi journalist
threw his shoes at Bush and called him a dog, and became a national hero.]
And I've been saying since about 2005: we're going to lose this war. I mean we're not
going to achieve our goal: a stable, democratic Iraq that is an example to the rest of the
Mideast. The best case is that we'll get a stable Islamic republic. The worst case is
a long-running civil war that spills over the borders and destabilizes Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc.
We've forgotten the basic lesson of the Vietnam war: we can't use guns to force people to
become peaceful and democratic and America-lovers. It doesn't work.
- Afghanistan war (damaged the country, killed many civilians,
spent maybe a hundred billion dollars for little result,
didn't catch Osama bin Laden, didn't create a stable democracy, didn't stop the drug trade,
now destabilizing Pakistan).
And I've been saying since about 2005: we're going to lose this war. I mean we're not
going to achieve our goals: catching Osama bin Laden and destroying Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and building
a stable, democratic Afghanistan with a non-drug economy. The best case is that we'll
get a stable hard-line Islamic republic fueled by drug money. The worst case is
a long-running multi-group civil war, fueled by drug money, that spills
over the borders and destabilizes Pakistan.
We've forgotten the basic lesson of the Vietnam war: we can't use guns to force people to
become peaceful and democratic and America-lovers. It doesn't work.
We were right to attack Afghanistan after 9/11, to try to destroy Osama bin Laden and
Al Qaeda and the Taliban. When we failed at that, we should have left Afghanistan
and let all the warlords and such fight it out. If the Taliban is back in power after
a few years, we go back in and punish them again, then get out again. Not a happy
situation, but the best we can do.
- Somalian war (took down a group that had driven out the warlords and stabilized the country, just because it
was an Islamic group; see
Martin Fletcher on Somalia).
- Destroyed American reputation for justice and morality (imprisonment without just process,
torture, "extraordinary rendition" for torture in other countries, warrantless wiretaps,
assertion of our right to invade anyone we feel threatens us).
- Damaged the US constitutional "separation of powers" (using "signing statements" to
declare intentions to ignore/modify legislation, issuing "secret opinions" to
do the same, declaring Vice President not subject to laws about executive branch,
asserting President has unlimited powers as C-in-C during a "war on terror" that will never end).
- No Social Security reform (insisted on a privatization scheme that would have been
a disaster; how about just raising the SS tax rate a little, removing income level cap on taxation, and
taxing benefits for high-income recipients ?).
- No Immigration reform.
- Very little health insurance reform (just Medicare prescription drug program).
- Denied and postponed dealing with climate and energy problems (which will
cause much greater damage in future decades than if we had started dealing with them in 2001).
- No significant progress with some problem countries (Iran, North Korea, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine).
- Significant damage to relationships with some problem countries (Russia).
- Damage to relationships with allies (overwhelming negative sentiment by citizens in Europe,
spurning UN and treaties, polarizing "you're either with
us or against us" attitude).
- Leaving behind an exhausted military (worn-out equipment and personnel,
severe recruiting problems, troublesome "contractor" system).
- Incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina gives little confidence that
government could handle a serious NBC (nuclear or biological or chemical)
attack on the USA.
- Bailouts to airline, financial and automotive industries
(what ever happened to free enterprise ?).
- Increased the size and power of the government (federalized the transportation security workers,
Patriot Act, nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).
- Failed to keep campaign promises (be a "uniter not a divider", avoid "nation-building").
Not sure if it is success or failure:
- No Child Left Behind (massive increase of Federal govt influence in education;
and apparently the original Texas program had statistics
fudged: they didn't count mid-year transferred students, so that was an easy
way to hide bad students).
Not his fault:
- 9/11 Attacks (Not an intelligence failure:
we'll never be able to detect every band of 20 guys who want to do something.
But I do blame the FAA and airports: they knew airline security was bad, and ignored it).
- Failure to catch author of the anthrax attacks (although the FBI certainly has
not covered itself with glory in this and other investigations).
- Economic meltdown of 2008 (although Republican hatred of regulation had a lot to do with it;
but I blame Congress over 20 years more than the Bush Administration, and I think any President
really can't "manage" the economy very much. And the bailout has been mismanaged.).
|
