November 21, 2024

2 thoughts on “Bush’s Last Stand: a Rebuttal of the Undeserved Criticism

  1. I think the American public didn’t react as negatively to previous U.S. interventions in the Middle East because these actions were perceived as instrumental for the U.S.’s positioning against the USSR for regional influence. The counterexample to this point would be Vietnam, of course, where many citizens did not believe that anti-Soviet positioning was worth the loss of American lives. One could also consider the extent to which the public was readily informed about events like the coup in Iran.

  2. Unfortunately, what Bush will be remembered for will be the creation of the surveillance state, the polarization of the middle-east, the strengthening of Iran, and the misadventure in Iraq when the focus should have been the radicals in Afghanistan and Pakistan. While the theoretical merits of the Iraq war will be debated again and again, the realities that we must now face are a potential nuclear-armed adversaries in Iran and Pakistan who, at a minimum desire the utter destruction of the state of Israel, and at a maximum, the total destruction of western civilization and a wholesale replacement of our values and way of life with a theocratic hegemony that spans a significant portion of the globe.

    There is a vast difference between smaller government and a passive government. George Bush was an advocate of a passive large-sized government, which ended up putting us into the financial debacle we’re currently experiencing. A lack of governance is not the same as a small government and obviously, from the massive spending deficits and size of government that was left behind, Bush was not an advocate of smaller government at any level which ran directly contrary to traditional GOP values.

    In the final analysis, the American people saw someone who betrayed the ideals of the party he represented and they couldn’t stomach someone like that; even if they were part of that party… there was nothing even left to respect at the end. No accomplishment could offset that betrayal. That’s why his approval ratings were so low. He utterly destroyed the GOP and those of us who still hold conservative values dear are left to pick up the shattered pieces and move forward in some sort of meaningful way.

    The point is; just because you have an (R) next to your name doesn’t mean anything. Being a conservative means so much more than being anti-abortion and anti-taxation.

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