Legacy of George W. Bush
The Legacy of George W. Bush
"What
is the legacy of [President George W.] Bush?"George W. Bush's father George H.W. Bush was a competent man who succeeded in business and served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency before becoming the 41st president of the United States. George W. Bush lacked his father's intellect and competence. His greatest asset was the name he shared with his father and he relied on it to rise politically, eventually becoming the 43rd president. For these five reasons, the legacy of George W. Bush's presidency will remain one of colossal failure.
1. He failed to protect America
For eight months after his inauguration in 2001, George W. Bush's counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke warned him about the threat posed by Al Qaeda, and for those eight months, George W. Bush ignored him, in no small part because Richard Clarke was a hold over from his predecessor Bill Clinton, even though it was Bush's own father George H.W. Bush who originally had appointed him to chair the Counter-terrorism Security Group. In the ninth month, America suffered the consequence of George W. Bush's failure to heed Clarke's repeated warnings, when Al Qaeda attacked on September 11th.
2. He failed to win the war in Afghanistan
Soon after the installment of Hamid Karzai as the Afghan president on December 5, 2001, the Taliban, devastated by U.S. aerial bombardment, offered to surrender in exchange for immunity. Had George W. Bush accepted that offer, there would have been no need to nation-build Afghanistan, we would have won a decisive victory with minimal loss of life or treasure, and terrorist around the world would have learned to never attack America.
George W. Bush neither accepted that offer nor fight to finish the war. When the Taliban seemed on the verge of defeat in 2003, he pulled our troops from Afghanistan to invade Iraq, allowing the Taliban to escape, regroup, fight for the next two decades, and eventually beat us in Afghanistan. The longest war in our history cost tens of thousands of Americans killed and maimed, hundreds of thousands Afghans killed and maimed, trillions of dollars, and our prestige. To terrorists around the world, our military is now one that can be beaten.
3. He lied to invade Iraq
In 2013, the rest of the world, including the United Nations' weapons inspectors in Iraq said Iraq is complying with the UN's weapons inspection program and there are no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. George W. Bush said Saddam Hussein has WMD in Iraq and pressured Secretary of State Colin Powell, the most respected voice in his administration, to make that claim to the United Nations Security Council:
During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when President John F. Kennedy dispatched Secretary of State Dean Acheson to show Charles de Gaulle the satellite images of the Soviet missiles in Cuba, the French president declined to see them, saying that if the President of the United States says there are Soviet missiles in Cuba, then there are Soviet missiles in Cuba. George W. Bush has destroyed America's credibility.
4. He flooded Europe with millions of Muslim refugees
By invading Iraq and lighting a powder keg in the Middle East, George W. Bush created millions of Muslim refugees who have flooded into Europe and even into America.
5. He laid the foundation for a nuclear-armed Iran
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is a rudimentary axiom of international relations. The enemy of Iran, our principal enemy in the Middle East, is Iraq. By invading and destroying the enemy of our enemy, we have helped our enemy Iran.
Had Iraq not been destroyed, it could have continued to keep Iran in check, as it did by fighting a war against Iran in the 1980s. And had we not invaded and lost in Iraq, America would still have both the will to invade Iran to prevent it from becoming nuclear-armed and credibly threaten to invade it if it doesn't abandon its nuclear program.
The legacy of George W. Bush isn't just one of gross negligence and incompetence. He lied to invade another country, destroyed countless lives of Americans and foreigners, and deserves to be tried as a war criminal.
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