The ‘War on Terror’ Is Critical to President George W. Bush’s Legacy

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The economic legacy of George W. Bush can only be measured in trillions of dollars—in fact many trillions. And it's all waste and loss.
President George W. Bush's First Legacy: The Mountain of Debt
During Bush's two terms in office more than $3 trillion has been poured down the black hole of wars in Iraq and the Middle East. More than $5 trillion has been served up in tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest 10 percent households in the U.S.
According to U.S. Federal Reserve Bank data, since Bush assumed office in January 2001 government debt levels have risen by more than $3 trillion—the total as of the end of March 2008. It does not yet include the cost of bank bailouts this past September: $300 billion for Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, $85 billion for the insurance company giant AIG, and the infamous $700 billion TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) bailout at the close of September amounting to another minimum $1.085 trillion.
President George W. Bush's Second Legacy: System Collapse
The unwinding of the $21 trillion in net debt accumulated during the Bush administration is the root cause of the current financial crisis.
The write-downs and write-offs by banks and other financial institutions, the bankruptcies by companies and consumers, the losses of home values, the foreclosures, etc.—all represent the "unwinding" of that record level of $21 trillion new debt. The September bank bailouts represent an effort by finance capital and America's corporate elite to shift a major portion of this debt from their corporate balance sheets to the public balance sheet and taxpayer.
The bank bailouts will not stop the debt unwinding as they do not address the fundamental causes of the housing and commercial property price collapse underway since the beginning of the year and now accelerating. The only thing settled by the bailouts—TARP, Fannie Mae, AIG, and others—is who will pay for the crisis, not how to end the crisis.
President George W. Bush's Third Legacy: Epic Recession
The direct consequence of financial crisis and implosion is a general credit crunch—a system-wide sharp contraction of credit. A credit contraction has been progressively growing in the economy since last January. A credit contraction occurs when banks and financial institutions have, or expect to have, significant losses due to bad loans and investments and are increasingly reluctant to loan out reserves they may have on hand. They may need the cash on hand and reserves to cover anticipated losses and prevent becoming technically bankrupt if their losses exceed their reserves. Over the past year financial institutions have tightened their lending terms. But even the slow down in lending hit a wall and entered a new, more intense and serious stage with the financial events of September.
From housing and commercial property markets to industrial loans to municipal and corporate bonds to commercial paper and even markets in which banks loan to each other, all began to shut do

Ajay Jain of TX 1:52PM May 02, 2013

some of this is lies

michael 7:50AM November 01, 2012

I strongly agree with the statement ... We are Americans... We don't torture. It does not matter whether torture worked or did not work. The point is the Constitution was violated & International laws were broken.
We do not torture, and torture is a crime, not a method. If you want to work for a government and want to torture someone, you need to find another country. Government employees take an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. If you are a government official and torture someone, you have failed your oath to defend the U.S. Constitution and you have broken the law. We do not need or want people working in our government that conducted torture.
There is no way anyone can respect the CIA if it rewards torture interrogators with their job. Abscess of morality in any government agency will not result in respect, either now or in the future. This controversy is not about legal opinions & the CIA its about the CYA mentality of the Bush Administration. The Bush administration motives may have been honorable but their actions were criminal they need to be held to account !
At the Nuremberg trials in 1946, the U.S., England, and France decided that just taking orders is not excuse for torture. Concentration Camp commander's defended their actions as just taking orders. No doubt Nazi lawyers declared their actions both necessary and legal under German Third Reich Law. At Nuremberg in 1946, the decision by the U.S., France, and England was unanimous, that a person is responsible for their own actions. No orders or shadow legality is a defense against a complete loss of morality. The trials at Nuremberg set the standard. Just taking orders does not give anyone, not even an American, the right to torture another person . We do not want our country to have Nazi morality standards.
I hope we still have today as much moral strength as our fathers that fought WWII to save our country and save our Constitution. If government officials today trash our Constitution to gain immediate ends, then we have lost any meaningful difference between our enemies and ourselves.
We are America, and We don't torture. Our Constitution and our morality are worth far more than any information obtained from torture. The ends do not justify the means & there are more intelligent , effective & efficient means to obtain accurate information.
We should also keep in mind that who knew what & when is irrelevant & who did what and when during the Bush Administration is what is important ! If true, giving an illegal order to withhold information from Congress by Vice President Chaney is a crime !
We are Americans, and We don't torture. NO IF ANDS OR BUTS ABOUT IT ! See title 18 sec. 241 & 242 if you do torture, this is what you can expect from the law. Eventually the US Government will have to do the right thing and bring all those involved in this criminal behavior to justice ! NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW !

Gezzer of FL 9:21PM July 14, 2009

histiry will see Bush under a diferent ligth will eventually prove that war some times is the only way to show the world that you will not sit back and wait for others to take actions against you, unfortinaly the rest of the wolrd is not as sivilized as us or as undetermenate as EUROPE

MIKE BAENA of FL 11:48AM May 22, 2009

It is understandable that terrors are right next to us and the need to protect the country is a need. But also many families need assistance of the crisis that is happening inside the country. For examplem, there are many foreclosures. The need for medical assistance, and many other more.

Jose Granados of CA 12:14AM February 20, 2009

The argument that Bush kept us safe from another terrorist attack is foolish. That argument can be used for almost every president. Get real, terrorism is way down on the list of problems this country faces. How many of our own citizens die every year due to lack of adequate healthcare? The right uses select fear tactics to gain numbers to their small base. Unless you are in the top 2 percent of income, the Republican party is doing you no favors.

Tom of IL 11:31AM February 15, 2009

Lets see we have killed and captured thousands of terriost , we have set up democracy in the heart of Islam ( Iraq ) he has stopped any attack in this country for 7 1/2 years . Where do you get your failed " War on terror " from ? Oh yea you must be one of those Bush hatting , terriost loving CNN Sheep. I hope OBAMA will keep us half as save as BUSH did , But since the first thing he does is FREE the Terriost in Gutanamo Bay Prison, I would not bet on it .

Joe of MS 1:39PM February 13, 2009

Bushes problem was he misjudged people.
there was a time when americans were proud to be americans
now all you here is about my own selfish desires.
I believe kennedy said ask not what your country can do for
you,but what can I do for my country?
I predict obama will give us capitalism and america will be
like england pretty much.
should be interesting....

justin of FL 10:45PM February 09, 2009

I don't think it will take "50 years" to define his presidency. Record deficeits, bogged down in Iraq and Afganistan, a failure to find Osama Bin Laden, disregard for civil liberties, the Bill of Rights, the Imperial Presidency, Katrina, Gitmo and Abu Grab, a wrecked economy, alienating our allies, mission accomplished on an aircraft carrier, hanging chads, corporate CEO's going to jail, tax cuts.

Eric Dodd of AR 3:33PM January 23, 2009

By: Jordan C. Fan, Prophet Of Environment.
To be fair, George W. Bush may well be one of the better presidents in recent U. S. history. He is much better than everyone from FDR onward to Clinton & certainly a million times better than Obama who will be the worse president in U. S. history and also the worse leader our world has or will ever have. If I said from FDR on, it means all U. S. president we are familar with.
The reason for W's greatness is that he allows the price of oil and other natural resources to go up which will provide a fair opportunity for those oil & natural resource national to develop economically into other areas.
Those other areas for nations who have received money on their oil reserve can be on industrial development, infrastructure, education, environmental protection, etc.. Higher oil prices will help the Environment because there will be less consumption, less waste and less development and expansion into the wilderness.
When an oil and other natural resource producing nation is in great need of money to run its country, it has no choice but to lower its oil and natural resource prices to compete for cash income. I guess the best way to stabilize oil price and make it higher is for OPEC and other oil producing countries to have alternative income. With alternateive income from other sources than oil, then they don't have to depend entirely on oil for money to run their countries. Therefore, they don't have to lower oil prices to compete for sale.
May be that is the reason why the United States were trying hard to put other countries into poverty and insatbility in the past, especially those with huge natural resources. George W. Bush or maybe his father may well be the only U. S. president(s) who have been doing something good for those natural resource producing nations.
George W. Bush's first mistake was to hire all Blacks for his foreign relation departments. To start his administration, Bush used Colin Powell as Secretary of State and Condi Rice as Foreign Policy Advisor. After firing Powell, Bush still insisted on using a Black woman - Rice as Secretary of State. Together, Powell and Rice have initiated numerous foreign policies which made the U. S. failed on all fronts. Quite obviously, they are all spying for Democrats especially when Powell is currently endorsing Obama.
Since the Secretary of State also control U. S. embassies aboard, they can make it much easier for Africans to immigrate to the U. S. whereby increasing the population of voters who will vote against the Republican Party.
Bush was to too greedy in thinking Iraqi oil can bring them great fortune. Saddam Hussein had problems making money from his oil reserve during peace time. How can Bush get profit oil out during a war?
Even before Bush took office, the U. S. was already in a recession. The U. S. government was simply presenting fictitious economic figures to recover up their financial troubles.

Jordan C. Fan, Prophet Of Environment. 6:58AM December 23, 2008