Since Bush will be leaving office very soon, I wanted to take the opportunity to show my thanks to him. I think that it’s clear that he has made multiple mistakes, and sometimes I thought he was just fat out wrong on a couple issues. But I’m thankful that he was president these past 8 years, and here’s why.
I’ll go down a list of issues that I’ll grade him on. I’d like to see what you guys think as well.
National Security - A
This will be the main part of his “legacy.” I bet every single person on this board expected there would be another attack after 9/11. He did what it took to stop further attacks. He set up a very efficent and effective infrastructure to intercept and stop funding to and from terrorist organizations, and prevent firther attacks. And everything that he did was legal.
Iraq - B
It didn’t go perfectly, but we have won in Iraq, despite people trying to undermine and assault the troops and the Commander-in-Chief. I think history will judge the decision to go into Iraq much more fairly than now. It’s hard to say what the world would be like if we didn’t go, but it’s one less dictator that we’ll have to deal with. As the years go on, we will also have a strong ally in the Middle East, other than Israel, which will be incredibly helpful in the future. Oh yeah, and we liberated 50 million people.
Afghanistan - C
We should have waited until we were finished in Afghanistan before we went into Iraq. We need way more troops there. We’ll see what Obama does.
Economy - C
I would have given him an A until a few months ago. His tax cuts created millions of jobs and lead 52 months of uninterrupted economic growth. But his massive spending and his failure to use free market solutions has made him look like a joke. I know all of these bailouts is more so because of Paulson and Congress, but he allowed all of it to happen.
Other foreign policy - A
He has handled North Korea, Russia, and Iran very well. There was a time about a year or two ago that looked like the 3rd World War was coming, but he has dealt with all of them effectively.
Africa - A++
Bush doesn’t get much publicity for this, but he’s done more for Africa than any other person in history. I didn’t even know this until last year, when I had a 33 year old African woman in a class of mine, and she told us about it. After doing a little bit of research, he has tripled funding to Africa. According to the NY Times, 1.4 million Africans have received life saving treatment from American funding. That number was only 50,000 before his initiative.
Illegal Immigration - D
He’s been terrible on immigration policy. That’s really all I can say.
Bottom line is, you may not have agreed with his decisions on tough issues, but at least he has made those tough decisions, and stuck with them. I have an incredible amount of respect for the man. He’s very classy and has more character than Obama will ever have.
Let the bush bashing begin. :crash:
