Thread: Has your view of Bush improved since his departure?

Originally Posted by sambansal

He (Bush) stood his ground, no matter what. To me there was nothing wrong with Bush.

IMHO the fact that Bush stood his ground in the face of mounting evidence that the decision to invade Iraq was ill conceived, poorly planned and based on flawed assumptions is of little consequence.

From the outset Bush and his administration cherry picked data and assertions that strengthened their case for the invasion of Iraq and shutout any countervailing points of view or data that would diminish that position. Even when information came from within the US intelligence agencies and knowledgeable experts on the area that Saddam had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11, the Bush Administration pushed forward with their agenda to invade.

Even after the successful defeat of Saddam’s military forces, the poor planning of the part of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by failing to provide adequate security for the civilian population and key infrastructure and thereby letting al Qaeda and insurgent elements establish themselves in the country, which has directly or indirectly accounted for additional deaths of American service men and women and Iraqi civilians.

In closing let me make one thing perfectly clear, I’m not some bleeding heart liberal that believes that if only we could all just join hands and sing Kum Ba Ya the world would be a better place. I supported Bush’s decision to invade Afghanistan and still do today, however the failure to deal decisively with bin Laden and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, will I’m afraid, haunt us and the rest of the world for many years to come.

Originally Posted by tim52

Even after the successful defeat of Saddam’s military forces, the poor planning of the part of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by failing to provide adequate security for the civilian population and key infrastructure and thereby letting al Qaeda and insurgent elements establish themselves in the country, which has directly or indirectly accounted for additional deaths of American service men and women and Iraqi civilians.

In closing let me make one thing perfectly clear, I’m not some bleeding heart liberal that believes that if only we could all just join hands and sing Kum Ba Ya the world would be a better place. I supported Bush’s decision to invade Afghanistan and still do today, however the failure to deal decisively with bin Laden and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, will I’m afraid, haunt us and the rest of the world for many years to come.

De-Baathafication was Paul BREMMER's mistake but the administration went along with it. The guys in SF kicked about it without success.

I think that the CIA was "first-in." That was not the massive force required to encircle al Qaeda. I have no problem saying that too was a mistake.

Originally Posted by Roosveltrepub

It could be argued Kyoto failed for the same reason as the League of Nations. We pulled out.

Our emissions per capita has been decreasing. Other countries that were part of Kyoto missed their goals. Their actions are independent of ours and so that's not a sufficient excuse in this case.

Originally Posted by JOgershok

Consider this. The UN had previously moved against him when he invaded Kuwait. BIG DIFFERENCE?

I would have to say yes, considering it was the invasion of Kuwait, a sovereign nation and the threat posed to Saudi Arabia that was the impetus for the first gulf war. No one was willing to cede control of that much of the world’s oil supply to any one country.

In 2003 Iraq was contained and manageable. Was Saddam a tyrant and despot, yes without a doubt, did he engage in crimes against humanity, again yes. But those have never been sufficient justification for war. The charge that Saddam was developing WMDs was the main Casus belli used by the administration. But when it was later found that there were no WMDs, Bush and company floated out human rights violations, the need to fight al Queda “over there” and a host of other false flags to distract and deceive the American public into supporting the war.

In the meantime the Taliban was able to reconstitute itself and al Queda further spread its tentacles into the Muslim world; a disaster of epic proportions.