8 Years of Bush Turmoil End Jan 20: "I'll be dead before they finally figure out my administration"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Eight years of Bush turmoil end Jan 20

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Eight_years_of_Bush_turmoil_end_Jan_10272008.html



On January 20, US President George W. Bush hands over the keys to the White House and turns out the lights on an eight-year span of war and, as one ally put it, "mind-boggling and hair-raising" episodes.

The Bush presidency, forged in the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes, now melts away with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and fears of recession and widespread unemployment.

In between, he began the still-unfinished wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, two fronts in a "war on terrorism" whose tactics have at times worried allies and drawn widespread condemnation at home and overseas.

He drove mammoth tax cuts through the US Congress, which he credits for spurring the US economy despite soaring deficits, and oversaw an unprecedented expansion of aid to Africa to battle disease and poverty.

After scaling historic heights of popularity, Bush leaves office with abysmally low standing with a US public that still recalls the nightmare images from the botched government response to killer Hurricane Katrina.

But he survived political storms whipped up by foes of an administration seen by its critics as one of the most partisan and secretive in US history.

Bush, who never stopped talking about the need to protect the United States, faced charges of betraying core US values with a network of secret prisons, or by putting detainees in the legal limbo of Guantanamo Bay, or green-lighting interrogation practices long seen as torture, or spying on Americans.

Often misjudged by those who mocked his erratic English or spoofed his folksy demeanor, the former oil man and Texas governor challenged those who saw only a son of privilege who owed his rise to his powerful father and won the White House only because of the botched 2000 election.

"I think I'll be remembered as a guy who, you know, was dealt some pretty tough issues to deal with and I dealt with them head-on and I didn't try to shy away," he said in November 2007. "I made decisions based upon principles, not based upon the latest Gallup Poll."

Principles, like what he described as a mission to spread democracy to win the "ideological struggle" of the 21st century, formed a central part of the case for the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

And they became the chief argument for his controversial "preventive war" doctrine when it became clear Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction or ties to Al-Qaeda.

Bush's national and international capital sank further with the Abu Ghraib scandal and the worsening civil strife that gave the lie to his triumphant speech before a "Mission Accomplished" banner weeks after the war began.

The president, who rallied Americans megaphone in hand at the ruins of the World Trade Center in September 2001, still loudly denies erring and described the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as the "liberation" of 55 million people.

"The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency; it is the right decision at this point in my presidency; and it will forever be the right decision," he said in March 2008.

The war alienated some traditional US allies, helped crippled US prestige in the Muslim world, and finally dragged his Republican party to defeat in the 2006 mid-term elections.

The president, whose reelection in 2004 had also brought the rare victory of expanding the party's congressional majorities, finally heard the voice of those calling for the ouster of his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

After 2006, Bush seemed to break with the neoconservative ideology that led him to lump North Korea, Iran and Saddam's Iraq in an "axis of evil" and appeared to take a more pragmatic approach to Pyongyang's nuclear program, the conduct of the war, and climate change.

For some, like Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid or Cornell University professor Elizabeth Sanders, Bush will go down in history as "the worst president."

But his supporters, now barely three out of ten Americans, admire his unbending stances on principles and say, as he does, that history will vindicate him.

Harry Truman, US president from 1945-1953, offers "an interesting parallel," according to Sidney Milkis, a professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia, noting how unpopular Truman and the Korean War were when he left office.

"The feeling about Truman was precisely the same. Yet history has treated Truman well. (It's) not out of the realm of possibility that History will treat George Bush a lot better than we think of him right now," Milkis told AFP.

The financial crisis makes that less likely, he cautioned.

At times, Bush alienated his conservative allies -- by expanding government prescription drug aid, setting national education standards, and finally partly nationalizing US banks in response to the financial crisis.

For years, Bush cited the absence of another terrorist attack and the more than 50 months of job creation over four years of growth as his two main accomplishments.

But now, Bush leaves a war and an economic meltdown, "so rather than Truman the analogy might be (Herbert) Hoover," widely blamed today for failing to prevent the Great Depression from swamping the US economy, said Milkis.

To hear Bush tell it, neither prospect troubles him: "I'll be dead before they finally figure out my administration because history, it takes a while to get the true history of an administration."

[markevil]

1. Its almost over already??? Boy it flew by..

Usually it takes 20 years or more to destroy a prosperous county like the U.S. He was ahead of the curve..

[benld74]

2. Oh we figured out your administration you asshat, but NOONE would prosecute!