Bush's Actual Legacy, as nailed by Dan Froomkin

[BurtWorm]

(Compare to this pathetic attempt at premature revisionism.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2009/01/13/BL2009011301509.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Here is Bush's legacy, in part:

He took the nation to a war of choice under false pretenses -- and left troops in harm's way on two fields of battle. He embraced torture as an interrogation tactic and turned the world's champion of human dignity into an outlaw nation and international pariah. He watched with detachment as a major American city went under water. He was ostensibly at the helm as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression took hold. He went from being the most popular to the most disappointing president, having squandered a unique opportunity to unite the country and even the world behind a shared agenda after Sept. 11. He set a new precedent for avoiding the general public in favor of screened audiences and seemed to occupy an alternate reality. He took his own political party from seeming permanent majority status to where it is today. And he deliberately politicized the federal government, circumvented the traditional policymaking process, ignored expert advice and suppressed dissent, leaving behind a broken government.
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Bush's great hope is that Iraq in the years to come will emerge as a thriving pro-Western democracy -- and offer some vindication for the misbegotten war that will always be associated with his name. (He has already done a masterful job of spinning his troop "surge" as a profound success -- instead of a maneuver that has simply postponed the nearly inevitable paroxysms to come.) But even if he does ultimately have something to show for our incredible -- and profoundly mismanaged -- investment of blood and capital, it will never be enough.

[spanone]

1. knr...truth to power

[grasswire]

2. and kudos to Froomkin for nipping at Bush's heels the whole way

He has been a courageous defender of our liberties.

[glitch]

6. Now this is someone I would like Obama to meet with. Mainstream, yet not corporate.

A Liberal.

[gratuitous]

3. Yeah, Iraq could become a pro-Western democracy

And I'd better stand up to accommodate the monkeys that are going to come flying out my butt.

The question that can never be answered is what would the course of a post-Saddam Iraq have been without American military intervention? That is, instead of a quick decapitation of a dictatorship, should we/could we have done things differently to foster and cultivate pro-Western sensibilities in Iraq? Saddam was not going to live forever, and what preparations could be have made to move into that vacuum when it inevitably occurred?

And what would have been the relative costs for each option? We know that we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives of our own personnel. This doesn't include the countless thousands of Iraqis liquidated, infrastructure destroyed, and hostility generated by our armed presence in Iraq. How does that compare with a true hearts-and-minds strategy that doesn't issue from the barrel of a gun?

[ThomWV]

4. The first paragraph beautifully captures Bush's entire Presidency.

[stop the bleeding]

5. So succint. nt

[DrDan]

7. great article

[Poiuyt]

8. This article should be required reading in all American history classes

I am worried by the thought that Bush and his minions may be able to spin his administration as a success. Lord knows they'll be trying.

[BurtWorm]

9. kick

[snot]

10. Did he mention shredding the Constitution (warrantless spying etc.),

eviscerating civil rights and SEC enforcement, wasting billions on privatization contracts to cronies, obstructing efforts to slow global warming, destroying the EPA libraries, furthering the consolidation of media ownership, etc.?

[PinkyisBlue]

11. The only part I object to is calling him the most popular president.

"He went from being the most popular to the most disappointing president..." I know it was in reference to 9/11, but he was still never the most popular president. The country was united behind him after 9/11, but people would have united behind anyone in charge after that event.

Al Gore won the 2000 election (and obtained more votes than Bush), and Bush stole Ohio in the 2004 election.

[Martin Eden]

12. I'm listening to Chimpy on the TV right now

It's amazing I can do this without regurgitating my dinner.

The man belongs behind bars, not in front of a national audience embellishing the lies of his presidency.

K&R for an article that tells it like it is.