“If Roosevelt had conducted World War II the way Bush has conducted his war in Iraq, we would be speaking German now.” – Geoff Staples

Geoff Staples | RadioLeft.com

I’ve been saying that Bush is the man in charge in his administration and that he is not a puppet of others for a long time. It is true that he has surrounded himself with a group of people that support the Republican corporate imperialist agenda. But, surely, it is clear to everyone by now that – to the peril of the United States and the world – Bush is the decider. Nevertheless, he is not solely responsible for his disastrous presidency.

Bush is quite consistent in his approach: Govern with the slimmest and most right-wing faction of voters required to prevail, manufacture “facts” to support his position, censor or fire those in his administration who don’t adhere to his ideological agenda, and use propaganda techniques to sell his programs with meaningless focus-group tested slogans.

To mention a few: The “Blue Skies” initiative relaxed clean air standards. Re-writing environmental studies that state global warming is a problem. Illegally using taxpayers’ money to pay propagandists to support his policies and make fake news segments for distribution to television stations. No Child Left Behind is intended to discredit the public schools so that they can be privatized. Bush installed incompetent cronies at FEMA, and FDA appointments were made to advance a social agenda by denying approval to certain birth control drugs. The Medicare prescription drug plan disallows negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies or re-importing drugs from other countries.

Republicans have also consistently protected Mr. Bush by blaming blaming Bill Clinton for Mr. Bush’ failures. According to Republicans, Democrats are responsible for Bush because Democrats didn’t put up better candidates. Of course, they fail to mention their party nominated Mr. Bush or that no matter who the Democrats nominated, they would still have supported George W. Bush. More recently Republicans have even claimed that Mr. Bush’ War is the Democrats fault because the neocons are really Democrats.

Prior Record

George W. Bush’ prior record is germane to this discussion because Mr. Bush is not the only one at fault. Those who voted for him in 2000 and 2004 share the blame as does the Republican congress that allowed Bush to run rampant over our country, our constitution, and the world by abdicating its constitutionally mandated  oversight – checks and balances – because Republicans support his corporate imperialist agenda.

Recently Michael Lind of the New America Foundation wrote that Mr. Bush is the fifth worst U. S. president behind Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Nixon, and Madison. If James Madison was a worse president than Mr. Bush, perhaps that’s because Mr. Bush has superior credentials to those of Mr. Madison. Let’s review them. James Madison had great success in shaping The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. In the congress, he was instrumental in organizing our new government. One doesn't have to agree with the Federalist Papers to know that they are the product of a keen intellect.

George W. Bush was a common drunk until age 40, had multiple drunk driving arrests, was known to torture animals and blow up frogs with firecrackers in his youth, had a questionable record in the national guard, screwed up every business venture his daddy helped him into, and even engaged in insider trading at Harken Energy. He found his calling as a good ol’ boy back-slapping mouth-piece for the Texas Rangers.

Mr. Bush was able to leverage his father’s popularity, Karl Rove’s strategy, and filthy smear campaign to acquire a berth in the Texas Governor’s Mansion where he famously mocked a death row inmate as he signed her death warrant, told a news reporter that he would have done something about inmates being tortured in a Texas prison if he had known the torture had been filmed, and advocated the death penalty for sixteen year old's and trying fourteen year old's as adults — this from a man who claimed to have found Jesus and that his life prior to sobering up was wild and crazy.

Iraq

The problem isn’t simply that we invaded Iraq. The problem with Mr. Bush' War is exactly the same problem as with the Vietnam War. We refused to acknowledge what it would actually take to win and invaded anyway. Once there, we refused to use the resources necessary to win. Barry Goldwater warned us that we shouldn't go into Vietnam because it would take nuclear weapons to win, and no one - including Goldwater - would actually agree to use nukes.

Mr. Bush didn't learn the lesson of Vietnam or World War II and he is well-known for his stubborn, uninformed, arrogance. Consequences be damned, Mr. Bush wanted his war with Iraq. So, Mr. Bush fluffed the intelligence and proclaimed we would be greeted with roses-petals at our feet. Once the Iraq government had been overthrown, he still refused to engage the resources necessary to prevail. Instead of putting us on a war footing, Mr. Bush cut taxes, antagonized the rest of the world with his axis of evil proclamations, refused to  talk to his enemies, and. told us to go shopping,

Contrast that with Mr. Roosevelt's War, in which the entire country was placed on a war footing and all available resources were focused on winning the war.

If Roosevelt had conducted World War II the way Bush has conducted his war in Iraq, we would be speaking German now.

True to form, Mr. Bush sent political cronies to oversee the rebuilding of Iraq – to oppose labor unions, privatize everything in sight, and hire his financial backers regardless of qualifications. 

Mr. Bush immorally and inexcusably sacrificed, the lives of our troops, the lives of Iraqis, the success of the mission, destabilized the entire Middle East, turned the world against us, and bankrupted our country to advance the Republican ideology of corporate imperialism. 

I think, as do many others, that we could not prevail, no matter how many resources we put into Iraq. But, we will never know since the opportunity for that is long past. Mr. Bush hid the looming disaster in Iraq, painted a rosy scenario, and labelled anyone who dared question him a “cut-and run traitor.” Rather than exercise their oversight responsibilities, Republicans continued to ignore the problems. In the 2006 election, Mr. Bush told us that terrorists would attack us if we voted for Democrats while Republican candidates claimed they’d never met him.

It would appear that Mr. Bush, is the issue of an immaculate election in which no conservatives or Republicans actually supported or voted for the man. Except that Mr. Bush can still fill halls and raise huge sums of money for the Republican Party and over 70% of self-idenfied Republicans continue to support him.

I visited an art gallery recently and saw an art work that sums this up: Headlines and photos of Bush screw-ups and atrocities on a large frame. In the center of the frame was a mirror.

Now

Mr. Bush stopped calling the Democrats cut-and-run traitors after the election because members of his own party started started levelling the same criticisms as the Democrats. The long-awaited Iraq Study Group Report has been released, detailing what the Democrats have been saying all along about the disaster in Iraq and advocating a strategy that can best be described as “cut-and-walk.” Even close Bush family friend and study group co-chair James Baker is hurling hand-grenades at Mr. Bush. Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) stood on the floor of the U. S. Senate and said he could no longer allow our troops to die and be blown up by the same IED’s (improvised explosive devices)  exactly as it has been going on for the last three years, and characterized Mr. Bush’ execution of the war as ”absurd and likely criminal.”

While he holds the Iraq Study Group Report at bay, Mr. Bush is making a great show of looking under his desk and in Barney’s bed for a new Iraq strategy. Mr. Bush should have thought about the consequences before invading Iraq and reviewed the strategy daily once he ordered the invasion.

Mr. Bush isn’t actually looking for a new strategy. He’s stalling for time while Karl Rove figures out how  to shift the blame to someone else and pass the problem on to the next president. In the meantime, our troops continue to die and continue to kill people in Iraq.

Who is responsible for the disastrous Bush presidency? If you voted for him or gave money to him, look in the mirror.