Too Tough on Bush?
I've been very political in my blog in recent months. My views have always been the same, but who I support started changing 5 or 6 years ago. I've dropped support for some people I feel let me down, George W. Bush being one of them.
But that's not to say that I hate Bush. As a matter of fact, I kinda feel sorry for him. As governor of Texas, he promoted and did the things he claimed he'd do as president. But what he didn't have to deal with, back then, were nationwide foreign affairs. Yeah, Texas has one of the largest economies in the country, and they deal with foreign leaders... but nothing like what happened back in 2001. I think he probably struggles with a great deal of guilt and regret, although he denies it publicly because it would damage support for his policies.
For a man with any compassion at all, being President of the USA has to be hard. You have to know that some policies negatively impact people. In the case of war, lives are lost, many times on a very great scale. There are very few people, anymore, that say going into Iraq was not a mistake. All the candidates for president have either said so, or failed to say it wasn't. This has to be hard to deal with.
I remember an ad for 'Bush 2000' that said, "Cut Income Tax; End Inheritance Tax; Promote Charitable Giving; Government should do very little, but do it well." It might as well have said, "and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty," or so I thought back then. I remember getting my 500 dollar income tax rebate (on TOP of my refund) during his first year in office. Man, I really liked him.
And I continued to like him. When 9/11 happened, I was proud of the way he reacted. We needed to instantly react to find and hold accountable the perpetrators of the heinous crime committed against the USA, and against humanity as a whole. He did so.
But we didn't get 'em. We attacked the government of the nation that was hiding the terrorists. The terrorists escaped. That's when it all seemed to start turning around for me. Too many of us just wanted blood for blood. The search for justice seemed to come to a slow, grinding halt, while vengeance against the region in general became the order of the day. We lost sight of the goal.
Don't get me wrong, I wanted vengeance. Bush did too. To this day, I can't watch footage of 9/11 without getting mad enough to punch somebody. If I watched that stuff enough, I'd be calling for nukes on the whole region. But we all know that's not right. There are human beings with a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness there, just as we have it here.
But they didn't ASK for us to give them our form of government, and I don't think they deserve us fighting for them if they don't stand up as a people and ask for our help. We should have either declared war against them, and LEGITIMATELY overthrew their government, installing one of our own, or allowed those in the country to sell their buddies out, the latter of the two being the most logical. Bush went completely against what he said he'd do. I know he was under pressure to make a bold statement, but he should have stood for the values upon which he was elected.
I don't see any validity in the theories that the Bush's are complicit in some big shadow-government conspiracy. Yeah, they're rich. Yeah, they have mid-eastern interests. Yeah, it looks shady. Do I think profiteering has occurred? Probably. It sure looks that way. But no, I don't think this whole conflict was constructed by the Bush-Cheney consortium as a means to an end. I think it was caused by a long history of bad middle-eastern policy.
If I've been too hard on Bush, it's not because I hate him. I'm not some peacenik hippie. I don't believe he's the puppet of some secret order that desires to control the world... It's because he let me down under pressure. Sure, as I said, he's been under a lot of pressure, but that's not a real excuse. He's the President of the USA, and, as such, should have realized the possibilities and been able to deal with it, while continuing to protect the constitutional rights of the US citizenry, keeping his campaign promises and not violating the principles upon which he was elected.
But that's not to say that I hate Bush. As a matter of fact, I kinda feel sorry for him. As governor of Texas, he promoted and did the things he claimed he'd do as president. But what he didn't have to deal with, back then, were nationwide foreign affairs. Yeah, Texas has one of the largest economies in the country, and they deal with foreign leaders... but nothing like what happened back in 2001. I think he probably struggles with a great deal of guilt and regret, although he denies it publicly because it would damage support for his policies.
For a man with any compassion at all, being President of the USA has to be hard. You have to know that some policies negatively impact people. In the case of war, lives are lost, many times on a very great scale. There are very few people, anymore, that say going into Iraq was not a mistake. All the candidates for president have either said so, or failed to say it wasn't. This has to be hard to deal with.
I remember an ad for 'Bush 2000' that said, "Cut Income Tax; End Inheritance Tax; Promote Charitable Giving; Government should do very little, but do it well." It might as well have said, "and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty," or so I thought back then. I remember getting my 500 dollar income tax rebate (on TOP of my refund) during his first year in office. Man, I really liked him.
And I continued to like him. When 9/11 happened, I was proud of the way he reacted. We needed to instantly react to find and hold accountable the perpetrators of the heinous crime committed against the USA, and against humanity as a whole. He did so.
But we didn't get 'em. We attacked the government of the nation that was hiding the terrorists. The terrorists escaped. That's when it all seemed to start turning around for me. Too many of us just wanted blood for blood. The search for justice seemed to come to a slow, grinding halt, while vengeance against the region in general became the order of the day. We lost sight of the goal.
Don't get me wrong, I wanted vengeance. Bush did too. To this day, I can't watch footage of 9/11 without getting mad enough to punch somebody. If I watched that stuff enough, I'd be calling for nukes on the whole region. But we all know that's not right. There are human beings with a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness there, just as we have it here.
But they didn't ASK for us to give them our form of government, and I don't think they deserve us fighting for them if they don't stand up as a people and ask for our help. We should have either declared war against them, and LEGITIMATELY overthrew their government, installing one of our own, or allowed those in the country to sell their buddies out, the latter of the two being the most logical. Bush went completely against what he said he'd do. I know he was under pressure to make a bold statement, but he should have stood for the values upon which he was elected.
I don't see any validity in the theories that the Bush's are complicit in some big shadow-government conspiracy. Yeah, they're rich. Yeah, they have mid-eastern interests. Yeah, it looks shady. Do I think profiteering has occurred? Probably. It sure looks that way. But no, I don't think this whole conflict was constructed by the Bush-Cheney consortium as a means to an end. I think it was caused by a long history of bad middle-eastern policy.
If I've been too hard on Bush, it's not because I hate him. I'm not some peacenik hippie. I don't believe he's the puppet of some secret order that desires to control the world... It's because he let me down under pressure. Sure, as I said, he's been under a lot of pressure, but that's not a real excuse. He's the President of the USA, and, as such, should have realized the possibilities and been able to deal with it, while continuing to protect the constitutional rights of the US citizenry, keeping his campaign promises and not violating the principles upon which he was elected.
posted by Tonewah at 2:17 PM
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