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Ten accomplishments of George. W. Bush
Like most Americans, I think of George W. Bush as a failed President.
Worse than that, I think him not simply as a President who chose unwise
policies but as one who assaulted the foundations of American democracy
and
federalism -- by institutionalizing torture, suspending habeas,
violating FISA, corrupting intelligence, and politicizing the Justice
Department, the CIA, the EPA and probably every other federal
agency.
Nonetheless: our institutions are strong, though weaker when he
took office; good people have served during his tenure; and not all of his
own impulses and goals were warped. After seven and a half years, the Bush
Administration
has some accomplishments under its belt. Arrayed together,
they look like the pillars of an impressive presidency -- if you discount the
incoming missiles of multiple disaster. Here's an equivocal list:
1.
Disarmament deal with North Korea - five years and maybe 10 bombs late, but
there would seem to be at least a reasonable chance that this rogue will be
effectively disarmed. John Bolton may sneer, but it's not every
President that's induced an enemy to blow up a nuclear reactor. After poking
the polecat Kim Jong II and stimulating North Korea's successful
weaponization, the Bush Administration has patiently tread a multilateral
path that's
yielded at least the potential of a good outcome.
2.
Bringing Gaddafi in from the cold: a long process with an array of carrots
and sticks, but the invasion of Iraq may have concentrated this dictator's
mind.
3. Massive increase in AIDS aid: perhaps thanks to Christianist
prodding, Bush has showed admirable focus and follow-through on one of the
greatest threats to global prosperity.
4. Prescription drug benefit:
too expensive, the donut hole is inefficient, private insurers have too great
a role, and the drug companies got a giveaway. But seniors do have
substantial help in paying their drug bills.
5. No terror attack
on U.S. soil since 9/11: no one will ever know all the reasons why, and many
of Bush's "antiterror" measures have come at a dreadful price. But preventing
another attack was probably Bush's top priority -- quite a heartfelt one. And
there has not been another attack -- here -- on his watch.
6. The
FISA bill he wanted: Bush has to know that he's gone all out on this front
probably to hand expanded capabilities to a Democratic President.
He's probably been motivated partly by the need to obtain cover for his
own crimes in breaking FISA. But again, he's doubtless convinced that
the intelligence agencies need the powers he's obtained for them. And
they probably do need most of them.
7. Decent stewardship of the China
relationship: China-bashing on the economic front is mostly demagoguery; it's
in everyone's interest that China continue on a peaceful path to first-world
economic stature and attendant global influence. The Bush crew has maintained
trust and cooperation; it's
doubtful whether more pressure could have shaped
Chinese economic or geopolitical decisions more to our liking.
8.
Deposing the Taliban: yes, the caveats outweigh the accomplishment: we let
bin Ladin escape, we took our eye off the ball, we allowed al Qaeda
to regroup and left a foundling government in a shattered country to its
own
devices. Subsequent neglect snatched protracted down-trending struggle from the jaws of victory. But who's to say the initial campaign couldn't have been
botched? The Taliban went swiftly, with a minimum of blood.
9.
Deposing Saddam: again, the price paid and the terms chosen
were catastrophic. This was not a job to be undertaken on false
pretenses, without winning our chief allies' assent or the world's
acceptance; it was the wrong war at the wrong time, and it gave new life to
our worst enemies.
But Saddam was a threat to stability in the middle east
and therefore in the world. Iraqis would have had to cope with his end at
some point, and who's to say the transition would have been better without
the heavy hand of the hegemon? There is now at least a reasonable hope that a non-monstrous national government will assert control over Iraq.
10. The Surge: if a hedge fund
manager loses $700 million out of a $1 billion, do we credit him with
decisions that bring the balance back up to a half billion? A poor analogy.
Money is easily accounted; lives can't be, and
actual historical outcomes
can't be compared with might-have-beens. Nonetheless, whatever you think of
the decision to go to war or of the first four years of its execution, the
surge was an extraordinarily difficult decision that's worked better than
basically anyone expected. It was also something of a reversal for Bush, who
had lived and died by the Rumsfeld doctrine to that point. I don't think
anyone can deny that the opportunity for a decent outcome in Iraq is far
greater now than in fall 2006; to deny the surge's centrality in the
turnaround is deep denial. Yes, those who designed and executed it got lucky
- but they made their own luck. The surge enabled the Sunni Awakening, the
Sadr rope-a-dope, and the long-delayed beginnings of legislative
progress.
So there you have it. I have not convinced myself that Bush was
a good President, or even not a monstrous President -- I consider
the institutionalization of torture as established U.S. policy a truly
monstrous legacy. So what exactly is the point of this exercise? Perhaps its
this: in a long-established democracy, there's almost an institutional
inertia toward
some constructive action. After a Rumsfeld, institutional
pressures and norms will push up a Gates. While stalwart nonpolitical
appointees like Richard Clarke may get pushed out, others, like Christopher
Hill will remain. Even a bad crew remains accountable to a large degree to
voters. As
long as people don't vote away their civil liberties or other
Constitutional protections, the system self-regulates and self-corrects.
Comments (20)
A mind-stretching post. I'm going to have to spend some time digesting it.
The final point is a good one, and I've been saying similar things. One could flip it around, though. In the 90s, I trusted the kind of "institutional inertia" you describe so much that I would never have imagined that America could fall as far, as fast, as we did between 2000 and 2005.
I think you're right that there was a floor. Eventually civil servants in the CIA woke up, and journalists woke up, and the people woke up, and Rumsfeld got kicked out. But jeez, the floor was a lot further down than I thought it was!
July 11, 2008 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ten seems to be a stretch.
Deposing the Taliban, yes, but has allowed them, because of Iraq, to come back.
Sadam, wasn't necessary in the first place and took our eyes of the Afghanistan.
The Surge a good idea tacked onto the back of a bad one.
July 11, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
It would be wonderful if all those items were only true. His major error that will come back to haunt the next few administrations was taking his eyes OFF of Afghanistan and invading Iraq (an action no doubt motivated by "I gotta outdo my daddy) Bin Laden has not been captured or killed and the Taliban has reformed and now are as strong as ever. They are even successfully recruiting the very people we so hideously abused in Gitmo. Then there is the economy. His responses to the housing crisis was so sluggish it may now result with a 30s type depression. The US economy and the mess in the Middle East will negate any accomplishments of this administration and will take years and years for the next several administrations to clean up.
July 11, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hear O.J. Simpson is really nice to his kids, Jeffrey Dahmer was always polite, and Hitler had a hell of sense of humor.
I admire your glass half-full approach, but no matter how you slice it, Bush will leave office as the worst president in American history.
July 11, 2008 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just imagine if Bush, McCain, and much of the republican party had gotten their way and were successful in privatizing Social Security into personal accounts based on the stock market as they proposed.
Considering the state of the present market, can you imagine the devastation the country would be in today?
July 11, 2008 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
July 11, 2008 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Another accomplishment - could his response to Katrina proves his remarks in the debate were spot on.
July 11, 2008 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, I laughed. This was a pretty good joke post, though a little dry. What proved it was #3. Thats such a huge lie and everyone knows how much funding has been cut and why. That I knew right when I saw it that this was obviously done tongue-in-cheek.
July 11, 2008 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
There was a terror attack after 9/11. It tried to kill Senior Democrats. It has not been solved.
The previous terror attack before 9/11 was also on the Twin Towers in 1993. Do the math. There was not another attack for eight years. We did not invade or go to war anywhere. We did not resort to torture camps, and ignoring the FISA court. We did not piss away a trillion or more dollars, and yet we did not have another attack for eight years. Bush has not matched that length of time yet, so how does he get any credit for doing better, when history shows that he has not.
July 11, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Taliban are resurgent. The are the strongest they have been since they were ousted. They now are in control of vast stretches of Afghanistan. They are now on the attack, and they are becoming more lethal with IEDs and Suicide attacks. The Heroin traffic is at an all time high. Tell me again how much of the credit goes to Bush. Is it the American People or The Taliban who should thank him for doing such "a heck of a job" in Afghanistan.
July 11, 2008 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let me throw my spin on this list.
1. Of course he got on his knees to deal with a dictator with real weapons of mass destruction. Bush only attacks people who seem like they can't fight back.
2.Gaddafi did come in from the cold but has thus far met a very chilly reception by Bush. Which is a shame as we need both oil and a friend in the middle east.
3. Treating existing aids cases is not nearly as practical a use for the money as spending it on research for a cure.
4.Tax dollars from the young poor to pay for the old rich. Funding for state welfare programs versus his ongoing cuts would have been less costly and helped the truly needy.
5. Several school shootings since 9/11, no real border security, and court rulings to allow more guns on the streets and we are supposed to think that Bush's brilliance has actually stopped the terrorists? How about this instead. There was no massive organized terrorist group bent on world domination just random chaotic cells that no longer need to come here as Bush will ship them Americans to kill in the comfort of their own homes.
6. Nothing in the FISA bill except a new way to take away your freedom.
7. Bush created a massive war debt and sold our souls to the Chinese to pay for it. All hail our new masters!
8. One man's terrorist was his father's freedom fighters. Also they seem to be making a very good come back in the country we helped them liberate from the commies.
9. One genocidal dictator taken out after we took him off the payroll for handling Iran. I can think of at least a dozen more on our payroll off the top of my head still doing our dirty work.
10. The surge. Ah yes, finally fielding the troops his first and second batch of fired generals said they needed years later and countless lives lost. Brilliant!
Feel free to disagree.
July 11, 2008 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Disagree? You said it all, and you said it FINE!!
July 11, 2008 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did this post fall out of the back of a horse or is it poorly written humor? I really can't decide...
July 11, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow! Wow! Wow!
How did you miss the greatest George W. Bush accomplishment while he has been President.
Drum roll please:
President George W. Bush's number one success, while in office:
On his watch; not a single American baby has been abducted by a wild Dingo.
July 11, 2008 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, forgot that one!
July 11, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eight years of Bushworld:
(1) First major terror attack on US soil, did not even shorten his vacation on being warned of it month before. Bush opposed investigation of 9/11, and then wanted to put Henry Kissinger in charge of it.
(2) Second terror attack shortly afterwards with anthrax, first letter mailed on 9/18, Bush and White House went on anti-anthrax CIPRO on 9/11. Democratic Senate leaders most notable recipients, no arrests ever made.
(3) Lied about why we invaded Iraq. Joked about WMD after hundreds of troops died looking for them.
(4) Fired General Shinseki who knew what invading Iraq would entail, and said it.
(5) First use of National Guard since WW2 in overseas war zone.
(6) First stop loss of US troops, largest loss of life of US troops in battle since Vietnam.
(7) First President to invade a country where sale of DVD's of American troops being blown up are a popular item for sale.
(8) Bush introduced America and the world to beheadings and dismemberment of US civ's and troops, torture of US detainees, IED's, VBIED's, daily suicide bombings in Iraq where there was no history of the practice.
(9) Increased security at US airports with plethora of new rules and searches, and the killing of mentally ill passengers by security personnel on more than one occasion.
(10)Travesty of New Orleans response.
(11)War run on a credit card, US debt doubles, cuts taxes on wealthy, says Social Security Trust fund is just IOU's in a drawer in West Virginia.
(12) Used the DOJ as a political tool to try to influence elections and elect Republicans, including the firing of many DA's.
(13) Repeatedly fired government employees, or altered their testimony for purely political reasons.
(14) First White House to give a press pass to a planted gay prostitute, Jeff Gannon.
July 11, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you! I gave this the benefit of the doubt until #5. What has Bush done that stopped a terrorist attack? (We know his actions have increased the liklihood.) Deposing Saddam? Yeah, THAT was just brilliant, huh? The surge? Now you enter pure delusion. This country will spend the remainder of the 21st century repairing the damage wrought by the Bush administration.
July 11, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have to strenuously object to #3. Yes, he has massively increased the money going to AIDS - by taking away the money that was fighting malaria, cholera and river blindness. He has not increased actual medical aid dollars. Moreover, so long as the money is tied to the ridiculous prohibition on family planning and condom education, it's really pissing in the wind.
July 11, 2008 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
ok, I have to strenuously object to most of them, to be honest.
The Taliban is only deposed in a small portion of Afghanistan. Saddam may be gone, but his people are not better off. Qadaffi was brought back into the international community by British diplomacy whose diplomats openly criticized the Administration's attitude and said that BushCo almost derailed the whole thing. Maybe they are lying, but I would take their word over BushCo's. Korea - #1, Korea would not have been such a problem if he had maintained the Clintonite policy in place. What he has accomplished with Korea is through going back to those policies he derided. China - he has done nothing to pressure China for greater economic freedoms - Hillary did more as first lady.
Here's his real accomplishment. He made the American people so desperate for change that primary voters were willing to nominate a woman or an African-American for president. That the people have turned so much against him gave primary voters and superdelegates the courage to look past only electability.
July 11, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know why the real issues behind this debate don't ever come up. Well here it is: here's the big secret that was whispered in those Senators and Congressmen's ears. It's so obvious you don't need a security clearance to hear it or understand it. Bush did not do anything by authorizing them to spy on us except stupidly take the blame for a program that has been in effect since the founding of the NSA (No Such Agency). That's right, the NSA has been spying on us illegally since it was founded. 20 years ago they were the largest purchaser of computer hardware on the planet. What do you think they were using it for? How many recordings you you suppose reside in their data bases of the conversations of every US Senator and Congressman? That's right, every conversation, every conversation. Do you wonder why our representatives of every stripe have become so eager to parrot the lies and have become so malleable? Do you understand why Mike McConnell has his shorts in a knot? He stands to loose a power that our government usurped secretly as soon as they had the technological capability of doing so. He's not about to let the American people have their constitutional rights back. Not on his watch. No government has ever voluntarily restored the rights of its citizens. This one will not be the first. This is not an issue of national security, it's an issue of totalitarian government.
July 11, 2008 8:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
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