Bush's Farewell to Iraq

One of the big news items today is that George Bush in in Baghdad, showing his appreciation to the Iraq government for working with the United States for bringing peace and stability to their country. (Whether that is true or not is a whole other story.) More importantly, I believe that Bush is there to thanks the troops for all of the sacrifices they have made in what is turning out to be another unending war.

As Bush's time comes to end (thank God) I think some reflection on what he has done, positive and negative is important. I do not believe that George Bush is a bad person, in truth I believe him to be a good hearted man, a patriot and unfortunately a man who listened to a lot of bad advice and allowed himself to be be guided by a group of short sighted, ambitious men and women who had their own interests first rather than the the interests of their country.

I agreed with Bush when he wanted to send troops into Afghanistan after 9/11. I thought he should have sent a lot more and that he should have tried right from the start to get a strong coalition of European and Arab States to join us.

I was amazed when I learned of all of the funding Bush made available in Africa to help fight AIDS and hopefully give thousands of people a chance at some kind of better life. I do not understand why Bush's PR people are not doing more to push that image of the President, rather than letting the public continue to see his failures.

Now, I want to state that I do not believe the economic crisis in the United States is George Bush's fault. Unfortunately, after years of build up the collapse unfortunately came on his watch. I find it embarrassing that today his staff are still trying to find a way to bail out the Big 3. Let them and the UAW work a solution out among themselves. They can save themselves and their jobs if they put their heads together and make some sacrifices. It is not the president's place to try and come up with the solution for them.

Of course the biggest error of the Bush Administration and the one we the people will be paying for during the years to come is the war in Iraq. We never should have gone. Of course hindsight is a beautiful thing but I never understood the rush to go in the beginning and I never understood why Congress never requested more in depth proof of the supposed violations committed by Saddam.

It is interesting that both Bush presidents had wars fought in Iraq during their administrations. If George Senior had allowed his army to march into Baghdad and dethrone Saddam at that time, the current war would never have happened. Of course we have no idea of knowing what the removal of Saddam at that time would have had on the stability of Iraq.

Lots of questions to ponder, lots of theories to offer.

The reality is that George Bush will be leaving office as one of the least admired presidents in the history of the United States. We can only hope that his successor will be able to leave a more impressive legacy.

What do you feel were the positive accomplishments of the Bush Administration over the past eight years? Do you feel that there were any positive accomplishments?

Voice your opinion so others can hear.

Its Common Sense!