LETTER: Legacy of George W. Bush is a disaster
Enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of George W. Bush’s war in Iraq.
The terrifying torture at Abu Ghraib prison made the headlines; more than 4,400 U.S. troops were killed; tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers were more seriously injured; and trillions of dollars were squandered when our country needs that money for its infrastructure, education and health care needs.
As tragic as all of the above, the truth is, through its utter incompetence and lack of foresight, the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq actually helped give an opening to the biggest weapon of mass destruction the region has seen in decades: the Islamic State (ISIS).
It is now time to say publicly what many Americans thought at the time and continue to think today: George W. Bush was a disaster. His legacy will be a stain upon the United States for generations to come.
Bush didn’t act on the warnings of the previous administration about terror threats, and the 9/11 attacks happened on his watch. He attacked the wrong country after 9/11 — Saddam Hussein and Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 (19 of the 9/11 attackers were Saudis, two were Egyptian) — and, to add insult to injury, Bush allowed Osama bin Laden to escape.
He ran up the national debt to astronomical figures by not putting the costs of two wars on the books. He destroyed any credibility the United States had as being “the good guys” with the revelations of his administration’s use of torture at Abu Ghraib prison. More than 4,400 lives of American soldiers were lost, tens of thousands were injured and, according to the British medical journal “The Lancet,” nearly one million Iraqis were killed between 2003 and 2013.
At the end of Bush’s eight-year administration, our economy was in shambles. We were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month, the banking system was failing and the automobile industry was collapsing.
President Obama was left with huge deficits thanks to Bush’s trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the corporate oligarchs and the richest 1% — thanks to two wars — and thanks to an unpaid for new Medicare drug benefit.
Though the right-wing propagandists say the Bush tax cuts boosted economic growth, the under-regulated banks were handing out billions of dollars in bad loans, which led to the economic collapse in September 2008.
Today the proposed peace deal with Iran (supported by Britain, Germany, France, China and Russia) is, on balance, a good agreement. Iran, having been put on notice that acquiring nuclear weapons is a non-starter, is being invited to normalize relations with the Western world.
Those in opposition to this impending agreement — namely, Sens, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, along with John Bolton, House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — have one thing in common: they all supported the Iraq war, which turned out to be the greatest foreign policy debacle in U.S. history.
Finally, because of the Bush administration’s deliberate lies both before and during the war in Iraq (the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq lie being the most glaring example), our country has to a large extent lost its credibility and the respect of others.
Before the Iraq war in 2003, we Americans could hold our heads high, secure in the knowledge that not only were our actions mostly honorable and well meaning, but they were recognized as such by the rest of the world. The average American could travel almost anywhere and find genuine affection and respect. But after Bush’s Iraq war based on lies, no more.
Thanks to the shredding of the truth by George W. Bush and his gang of right-wing, war profiteering ideologues (e.g., Vice President Dick Cheney’s company Halliburton made billions of dollars on the Iraq war), we have unfortunately lost our credibility. We are just now beginning to learn how great is the loss of that trust, and how very hard it will be to regain it.
What a terrible legacy to pass on to our children and grandchildren.
James V. Burke
SAYREVILLE
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