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As President Bush’s second term draws to a close one cannot help but be relieved to be at the end of the unrelenting attacks leveled against this man.
Obviously, half of the country (and their cronies in the media) do not know how to gracefully lose an election. This of course has greatly clouded any opportunity to gain a clear perspective of his impact on history. Those who hate him can drone on endlessly and attribute any number of evils to him which have absolutely no grounding in reality.
The most common Bush myths:
• The bad economy is Bush’s fault: The seeds to our current financial quagmire were planted during Bill Clinton’s presidency when it was decided by that administration that every American should be able to own a home whether they could afford it or not. The major financial institutions bought into this delusion and the result was inevitable.
• America’s bad relations with our allies is Bush’s fault: Our current, much lamented standing with our European “allies” should be weighed by the fact that Western Europe is on a one-way street to continental suicide through a deadly combination of unsustainable socialism coupled with an exploding radicalized Islamic population. Should we really be deferring to their judgment?
• The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were mistakes: Study Arab culture and Islamic history and you will not find a cheerful record of compromise or a long-term yearning for peace. Only power is respected. Therefore, when we were attached on 9/11 a bold response was required. The world’s primary state sponsors of terrorism were (in 2001) Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. With the war in Iraq and Afghanistan America thrust a sword deep into the heart of that appropriately named “axis of evil” and in the process freed millions of people from one of the worst dictators in history. Had this war been prosecuted by Bill Clinton he would be hailed by liberals as the hero of the age. Were mistakes made? Of course, but look at history and show me any war in which terrible mistakes were not made. The bottom line is that the world was convincingly reminded that America would respond to any attack on our country with overwhelming force.
As I write this, under President Bush’s watch, we have now gone something over 2,600 days since 9/11 without another terrorist attack on American soil. However, as the nation of spoiled brats that we have become, we will not appreciate that statistic until the next time we have to scrape up the remains of pre-school children from an American sidewalk.
It is interesting how incoming President Obama has been glowingly compared to that mythic Democrat icon Franklin Roosevelt, and Obama seems intent on resorting to Roosevelt’s “New Deal” playbook in the current fiscal crisis. In that light it is troubling to recall that the Great Depression did not end due to New Deal policies but only because of our entry into the Second World War, the most destructive war in history.
It should be noted then, with all due irony, that World War II was a calamity that could have been prevented had the West employed President Bush’s much derided “pre-emptive war” strategy against the Nazis in the 1930s.
The history books will indeed paint a far different portrait of the Bush administration than his political opponents have forced down our throats for the past eight years.
We should be very afraid of a national media that is determined to set the agenda rather than simply report on it, and leftist ideologues who only respect democracy when they win elections.
Randy Richey lives on the San Juan Ridge.
Obviously, half of the country (and their cronies in the media) do not know how to gracefully lose an election. This of course has greatly clouded any opportunity to gain a clear perspective of his impact on history. Those who hate him can drone on endlessly and attribute any number of evils to him which have absolutely no grounding in reality.
The most common Bush myths:
• The bad economy is Bush’s fault: The seeds to our current financial quagmire were planted during Bill Clinton’s presidency when it was decided by that administration that every American should be able to own a home whether they could afford it or not. The major financial institutions bought into this delusion and the result was inevitable.
• America’s bad relations with our allies is Bush’s fault: Our current, much lamented standing with our European “allies” should be weighed by the fact that Western Europe is on a one-way street to continental suicide through a deadly combination of unsustainable socialism coupled with an exploding radicalized Islamic population. Should we really be deferring to their judgment?
• The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were mistakes: Study Arab culture and Islamic history and you will not find a cheerful record of compromise or a long-term yearning for peace. Only power is respected. Therefore, when we were attached on 9/11 a bold response was required. The world’s primary state sponsors of terrorism were (in 2001) Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. With the war in Iraq and Afghanistan America thrust a sword deep into the heart of that appropriately named “axis of evil” and in the process freed millions of people from one of the worst dictators in history. Had this war been prosecuted by Bill Clinton he would be hailed by liberals as the hero of the age. Were mistakes made? Of course, but look at history and show me any war in which terrible mistakes were not made. The bottom line is that the world was convincingly reminded that America would respond to any attack on our country with overwhelming force.
As I write this, under President Bush’s watch, we have now gone something over 2,600 days since 9/11 without another terrorist attack on American soil. However, as the nation of spoiled brats that we have become, we will not appreciate that statistic until the next time we have to scrape up the remains of pre-school children from an American sidewalk.
It is interesting how incoming President Obama has been glowingly compared to that mythic Democrat icon Franklin Roosevelt, and Obama seems intent on resorting to Roosevelt’s “New Deal” playbook in the current fiscal crisis. In that light it is troubling to recall that the Great Depression did not end due to New Deal policies but only because of our entry into the Second World War, the most destructive war in history.
It should be noted then, with all due irony, that World War II was a calamity that could have been prevented had the West employed President Bush’s much derided “pre-emptive war” strategy against the Nazis in the 1930s.
The history books will indeed paint a far different portrait of the Bush administration than his political opponents have forced down our throats for the past eight years.
We should be very afraid of a national media that is determined to set the agenda rather than simply report on it, and leftist ideologues who only respect democracy when they win elections.
Randy Richey lives on the San Juan Ridge.
