Bush’s Legacy: Waging Preventive War in Iraq

Yes we have not been attacked since 2001. The question is who was in charge when we did get attacked? Did it take 9/11 to remind the president what his job is?

Diego Pierrottet of VA 8:24PM December 11, 2008

While the national conversation continues over whether Bush was right or wrong in going to war in Iraq, and we debate back and forth as to what happened to WMD's (that they either disappeared over the border into Syria or weren't ever there at all) let me remind my fellow Americans that we have not been attacked on our own soil in over 7 years. How quickly we forget the lessons and horrors of 9/11! How quickly we shift from thanks to blame! I attribute this secured safety to President Bush's decision to take the fight to the terrorists, rather than speculation regarding where they might hit next, while we hope they won't. Hoping is one thing, and action is another. This was a part of the Bush doctrine and I believe that it has worked. We will come again to thank Bush, as history corrects all current prejudices. Let us not forget that even Abraham Lincoln was called a baboon during his presidency, but history and hindsight eradicated that thinking. Granted, the war on terror has been expensive and every loss of life is major, but our human losses are less than 1/10th the number of troops lost in Vietnam. Let us not forget that Bush has eliminated a despot who murdered his own people, and elimated a fanatic religious theocracy (Taliban in Afghanistan) that exucuted women at soccer games to set examples to suppress freedom and blew up priceless Buddhist artwork carved in mountainsides. Two major countries in the Middle East are now struggling to birth democracy because of the Bush doctrine and plan.Bush has not recieved credit for this, and we won't give him credit until we are attacked again, after he leaves office. Then and only then will we reflect on the peace and security we have enjoyed over these last 7 years.

Our problem in Iraq was not winning the war or the planning to win the war. Our problem was in our plan(or lack therof) to keep the peace. We did not think through or take seriously the scism and prejudices between Shia and Sunni. We should have hired, retrained and overseen the former Army of Sadaam to keep the peace (and keep them busy). We should have stopped the looting after the fall. We were thinking through American 'rose colored glasses' that Islamic religous bigotry and hatred would be overcome by simple freedom and victory for democracy. These ideals are totally foreign to a people that have been suppressed for so long. It takes years to encompass democracy. These were our big oversights and mistakes in Iraq.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and we can see all of this in the rear view mirror of history, but as war planners in the Pentagon write the chapters for future US military to study for future efforts and decision making, (as far as the Middle East is concerned), there needs to be as much effort to keeping the peace as there is to winning the war. There needs to be greater study and understanding of the bigoted mindset of Shia, Sunni and Wahabi before doing this again.

Patrick Moody of FL 4:43AM December 11, 2008

There are those who will always place blame on others due to cowardice when faced with the truth. Bush/Cheney/Rove and their followers are cowards who will not stand true, who are not men enough to admit when wrong. There is nothing wrong with making a mistake, what is wrong and cowardly is to blame others for your mistakes. They may want to continue blaming the Democratic Party or the media but the majority of the nation now knows the truth and that is where they lost faith with the Bush administration. We no longer trust or believe Bush or anyone in his administration. The Democrates have their own faults and no one will take that away from them. The media, believe it or not, was kind to Bush and did not reveal all his shameful acts. Such as his allowing Cheney/Rumsfeld to fire or retire all who tried to tell him the truth or steer him straight. Bush's arrogance did him in. If Bush wanted a war of his own, he had Darfur or Somalia, where there were real tyrants murdering their own people. The genocide being purpertrated was unbelievable but Bush in his arrogance turned the other way and chose to fight a war for oil. I know he and Mrs. Bush think he will be vindicated, but no fat chance of that. History will find him to be the worst president ever and the worst administration in history. His legacy will be of a president who left his nation in shambles, who screwed the people left and right to enrich his buddies, a man who surrounded himself with idiots so they would tell him how great he was and to agree with him--instead of telling him he was taking the nation down the wrong path. He has left us in financial crisis, millions unemployed, millions losing their homes, low or stagnant wages, millions without health insurance, and thank the Good Lord we fought a good fight and did not allow him to privatize Social Security. I am truly saddened and sorry for Bush but if we look back in years, the Bush's have not done well in politics and would be better off learning a trade. We can't put all the blame on Bush we allowed the Republican Party to bamboozle us by marketing a lie. The premise is, if you tell the lie often enough and loud enough people will believe it...and we as a nation -- did.

Ann of IA 4:14PM December 10, 2008

Jerry from CO are you being paid by Bush to continue accusing the previous administration of Bush's failings?

Bush addressed issues that you accuse most Americans of not understanding but I'm sure you think you have all the answers just as Bush did, now 7 years after 911 we've lost more people in Iraq then we did in 911 and we still haven't found Bin Laden. By the way, you haven't been listening the Bush administration ran their entire tenure as though they were running a campaign. Maybe the Democrats will prove to be as incompetent as Bush and company but they cannot be any worse and it was time to give someone else a chance. And the Bush administration not only sat by and watched 911 happen but they sat by and twiddled their thumbs while the worst economic disaster in history since the depression has unfolded. You and the rest of your Republican lackeys have to stop blaming everything they did wrong on someone else, what happened to the accountability Bush promised us? Instead all we've gotten is finger pointing, two failed wars and a tanked economy. It's not Bush bashing and his incompetence is now legendary.

DavidBronx of NV 3:25PM December 10, 2008