The Bush Legacy

US President George Bush will leave office shortly. How does one assess his Presidency?

No doubt it has been said before -- but Bush’s administration was probably one of the most destructive to American society - in memory.

The War in Iraq was motivated - well, we don’t fully know what motivated this war. Clearly it was not motivated by destroying Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Iraqi arsenal, nor by Saddam Hussain’s alleged ties to Al Qaeda.

But this war, (like many others before it) has heaped personal and national devastation on the U.S. population. Aside from the monetary cost of almost 1 Trillion dollars, --- over 4000 young men have been killed and over 20,000 wounded. Hundreds of thousands of military families separated, (including National Guardsmen) forced to leave their jobs, their homes and their families.

On a foreign policy front, the Bush administration has not faired well either. No progress on capturing Bin Laden; no progress in a Israel-Palestinian solution; no progress in Afghanistan, or solving the Islamic Fundamentalist problems in Pakistan (with or without Musharraf) and no resolution of the Iranian and North Korean drive to develop nuclear weapons.

Mr. Bush will end his Presidency leaving the American people burdened with a huge national debt, an unpopular war, and a frail international reputation. How history will judge him is too early to tell, but we believe that his legacy almost certainly cost John McCain any real chance of winning his run for the Presidency and cost the American people much which is still to be fully assessed.