Spring Break
Adios, Arbusto
Michael J. LaRosa, Associate Professor of History at Rhodes
Issue date: 12/3/08 Section: Opinion
When George W. Bush's Arbusto Oil Company, operating at about a 3 million dollar deficit in 1986, was bailed out by Harkem Oil and Gas, people in Texas learned something that the rest of us would learn later: Mr. Bush is hardly an innovative or intelligent businessman. So, when he took over as CEO of the USA in 2001, many of us were…concerned.
Now, after eight years of incompetent rule, we're saddled with a national debt of about 12 trillion dollars (Mr. Bush inherited a national surplus of about 5.5 trillion), we've suffered the consequences of a compulsive, irrational drive to deregulate markets, an illogical tax policy that rewards the rich and punishes the poor and the appointment of unqualified hacks to critical positions (at FEMA, at Justice, at the Pentagon….) all of which has led, inexorably, to the economic chaos of the present.
With all of this in the foreground, Mr. John Ayers, on this page (November 19, 2008) suggests that there should be a national "appreciation/congratulations" for Mr. Bush's ending the war in Iraq? Let's get a few facts straight: President Bush is the most unpopular president in U.S. history because he took the country to war based on false information-information that was systematically organized, manipulated and presented by his administration.
The president and a small cadre of dangerous neo-conservative con men started this madness, but they never offered a plan for ending the war: The Bush end-game plan could be summed up as "kick the can to the next administration." Of course, the hapless McCain-Palin team offered no plan of withdrawal, whereas President-elect Obama made it clear that all U.S. combat troops would be out of Iraq within the first sixteen months of his administration. That's the position supported by a growing consensus of the American people, if the results of the November election are any indication of the national mood.
It's important to remember that before this past summer and the economic melt-down we're experiencing in real time, the recently completed presidential campaign was a national referendum on the disastrous Bush war. This past spring, Senator Hillary Clinton was defeated by Mr. Obama because she could never justify her irresponsible, politically motivated 2002 vote to authorize force against an Iraqi tyrant who posed no real danger to the U.S. Remember, the 2006 November election was also a referendum on Mr. Bush's war, and resulted in the Democrats taking control of the Congress for the first time in six years; it also finally forced a criminally incompetent and delusional Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, into retirement. According to the economist Joseph Stiglitz, the war could end up costing the U.S. taxpayers 3 trillion dollars; it has already cost us 4,200 American dead (including 15 Americans killed during November, 2008 as of this writing on Nov. 27), more than 30,000 Americans seriously wounded, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties. We've had no sustained political reconciliation in Iraq, no agreement on distribution of oil revenues, certainly no peace in the Middle East and the only issue most Iraqis seem to agree on is that they want U.S. occupiers out of their country by 2011. Thankfully, and only thanks to the election results of November 4th, U.S. troops will leave well before 2011.
Now, after eight years of incompetent rule, we're saddled with a national debt of about 12 trillion dollars (Mr. Bush inherited a national surplus of about 5.5 trillion), we've suffered the consequences of a compulsive, irrational drive to deregulate markets, an illogical tax policy that rewards the rich and punishes the poor and the appointment of unqualified hacks to critical positions (at FEMA, at Justice, at the Pentagon….) all of which has led, inexorably, to the economic chaos of the present.
With all of this in the foreground, Mr. John Ayers, on this page (November 19, 2008) suggests that there should be a national "appreciation/congratulations" for Mr. Bush's ending the war in Iraq? Let's get a few facts straight: President Bush is the most unpopular president in U.S. history because he took the country to war based on false information-information that was systematically organized, manipulated and presented by his administration.
The president and a small cadre of dangerous neo-conservative con men started this madness, but they never offered a plan for ending the war: The Bush end-game plan could be summed up as "kick the can to the next administration." Of course, the hapless McCain-Palin team offered no plan of withdrawal, whereas President-elect Obama made it clear that all U.S. combat troops would be out of Iraq within the first sixteen months of his administration. That's the position supported by a growing consensus of the American people, if the results of the November election are any indication of the national mood.
It's important to remember that before this past summer and the economic melt-down we're experiencing in real time, the recently completed presidential campaign was a national referendum on the disastrous Bush war. This past spring, Senator Hillary Clinton was defeated by Mr. Obama because she could never justify her irresponsible, politically motivated 2002 vote to authorize force against an Iraqi tyrant who posed no real danger to the U.S. Remember, the 2006 November election was also a referendum on Mr. Bush's war, and resulted in the Democrats taking control of the Congress for the first time in six years; it also finally forced a criminally incompetent and delusional Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, into retirement. According to the economist Joseph Stiglitz, the war could end up costing the U.S. taxpayers 3 trillion dollars; it has already cost us 4,200 American dead (including 15 Americans killed during November, 2008 as of this writing on Nov. 27), more than 30,000 Americans seriously wounded, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties. We've had no sustained political reconciliation in Iraq, no agreement on distribution of oil revenues, certainly no peace in the Middle East and the only issue most Iraqis seem to agree on is that they want U.S. occupiers out of their country by 2011. Thankfully, and only thanks to the election results of November 4th, U.S. troops will leave well before 2011.
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