I just received an e-mail asking me to comment on the legacy of President George W. Bush. Honestly, I have not given a lot of thought to this matter. I think much of President Bush’s legacy remains to be determined by what happens in the future. I guess that is usually the case, though.
Obviously, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and how President Bush responded will be the highlight of his legacy. But how will Bush’s response be viewed? If we are hit with a number of terrorist attacks in the coming years, I would have to say that the Bush legacy will be extremely favorable. We can’t exactly know how well he has protected America until we have something to compare it to, but we do know that there were no terrorist attacks after 9/11.
The war in Iraq, another highlight of the Bush Presidency, cannot be judged at this point in time either. I, along with most Americans, have soured on the idea of the Iraq war, but that really has no bearing on how history will view it. The success or failure can only be judged in the context of the outcome.
Many are saying that the current financial crisis will be a black mark on Bush’s legacy. I disagree. For one thing, we still do not know the extent of the “crisis.” Is it really the new Great Depression, or just a bad recession?
Another thing to consider is that there are so many factors involved in economic trends, not just the actions of the President of the US. I think that in the long run, Bush will not bear the responsibility of this financial crisis to the extent his critics blame him now. Whatever blame he does deserve, I think, will be overshadowed by his foreign policy, however that turns out.
I have not been a big fan of President Bush, despite voting for him twice (he was better than the other choices), but I am a member of the minority of people who still believe that history will view him in a better light than his contemporaries do.
George Bush is a good man, who did what he thought was right for the country. Whether or not it was right has yet to be determined.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:39 am
The Legacy of George W Bush, A Collection of Conflicting Opinions
ISBN-13 9781441455437
The debate over George W Bush is probably the most visceral debate of our century. There often seems to be no in between. Folks either love him or hate him. As we approach the inauguration of Barrack Obama, the internet has been bombarded with opinions ranging from one extreme to the other. In this book is a collection of dialog from all over the world and every walk of life. In an eight hour period of time just prior to GWB stepping out of the White House, one that that rings true is that we live in an amazing country just to be able to have this conversation.
Can a man’s legacy be drawn from an eight year period in time? What kind of a footprint has GWB left on the American people, or the world for that matter? Has he served his country well by protecting us from terrorism, or has a alienated America from the rest of the world. What role did Christianity play under the leadership of George W Bush? Has he acted as a Christian in his role as President of the United States, or has he misused the Bible as a means of procuring votes and evoking war? Was the rebuilding of Iraq set in motion years before the Twin Towers tragedy, or was this a rapid decision based on an emergent circumstance? Did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction, or should we have been focusing on catching Bin Ladin? What about North Korea and
Proliferation of nukes in Iran? Was there miscommunication between the CIA and the FBI and why was Home Land Security restructured as it was? Were our civil rights violated by the Echelon Program? The list of questions will go on for an eternity and there will probably be more theories about the Bush Administration than the JFK assassination and the Watergate Scandal combined.
I have tried to keep this debate as original as possible. That includes errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling. I have also tried to collect them in a somewhat chronological method in order to keep a level playing field. I have simply collected publicly posted comments of others from open sources with no expectation of privacy or
concealment. This is simply a collection of what others have had to say. I have tried to eliminate personal attack between the folks debating (or at least leaving out what I thought may be real names of folks) Some of the statements are redundant, just as they came down the pipeline. What ever your opinion of George W Bush Is…. This is a compelling, and somewhat disturbing read.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
“If we are hit with a number of terrorist attacks in the coming years, I would have to say that the Bush legacy will be extremely favorable.”
Come on now…Clinton got zero credit for no terrorist attacks on the USA for the vast majoirty of his term, but Bush always gets “credit” for the same thing. Please…how many Americans needlessly died fighting a War in Iraq that had zero purpose in the end??
“The war in Iraq, another highlight of the Bush Presidency, cannot be judged at this point in time either.”
Of course it can be. There was no “threat” posed to the USA by Iraq before we invaded, and now Iraq will rise or fall based on the efforts of the Iraqis themselves, not us. The War was completely & totally unnecessary, period.
“Many are saying that the current financial crisis will be a black mark on Bush’s legacy. I disagree.”
How could it not be?? Again, if this kind of thing happened on a Dems watch…we would never hear the end of it from the Right-wing.
“Has he served his country well by protecting us from terrorism, or has a alienated America from the rest of the world.”
It’s the latter unfortunately, but Obama can easily turn this around I think.
“What role did Christianity play under the leadership of George W Bush?”
Too much.
“Has he acted as a Christian in his role as President of the United States, or has he misused the Bible as a means of procuring votes and evoking war?”
Again, it’s the latter unfortunately.
“Was the rebuilding of Iraq set in motion years before the Twin Towers tragedy, or was this a rapid decision based on an emergent circumstance?”
It’s already been well-established that the neo-cons wanted to invade Iraq well before 9/11.
“Did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction, or should we have been focusing on catching Bin Ladin?”
Again, it’s been well-established that Iraq had no WMDs, and that we had Bin Laden & most of Al-Qaeda in our sights at Tora Bora and we let them slip away. Heck, there’s even evidence that we let entire flights full of Al-Qaeda fly out to Pakistan from other parts of Afghanistan around-about the same period of time.