In 2000 , George W. Bush and his cohorts were willing to subvert the electoral process to win control of the country. In 2004, they probably did it again, and certainly used the unifying tragedy of 9/11 to further divide the country and win again.
So, Bush has controlled the U.S. since 2000. And since 9/11/01, he has invaded two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq. Whether he controls them or not is open to interpretation, I guess.
But let’s take a quick inventory of the countries Bush has attempted to assert control over.
Afghanistan
After letting Osama bin Laden escape from Tora Bora (shades of his father letting Saddaam Hussein “escape” in ’91!) he essentially turned his back on this country. Now the country is the leading source of heroin in the world, and the Taliban is back, terrorizing the country (and funded in large part by the heroin traffic).
I’m among those who believe the rooting out al Qaeda in Afghanistan was a good idea. I’m also among those who believe Bush took his eye off the ball to go into Iraq. “Three hundred billion dollars [U.S. spending in Iraq]? You give that to Afghanistan and we will be heaven in less than a year,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai said recently. But it sure isn’t heaven now.
Which leads us to
Iraq
Where to begin? A war based on lies. There were no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to al Qaeda or 9/11. In short no reason to go there, kill upwards of 100,000 Iraqis (directly or indirectly) and getting on to 3,000 American soldiers, or so spend hundreds of billions of dollars, or to strain our relations with our allies.
So what do we get for our 3,000 dead Americans (and perhaps 20,000 disabled vets). We get a country that will soon be divided, we get a hothouse of terrorism. We get an enhanced and emboldened Iran. We get the opprobrium of the world.
Oh, yes, we also get to put “Support Our Troops” magnets on our cars as the Administration gouges veterans’ benefits.
Meanwhile, back in
USA
How about converting a $200 billion dollar surplus into annual deficits in the $300+ billion range?
How about posturing on Terry Schiavo, flag burning, gay marriage, and doing next to nothing about jobs, health care, energy policy?
How about enormous tax breaks for the wealthy, a scandalous estate tax campaign, and an absolutely loony Social Security plan.
How about Medicare Plan D?!!!!
How about waiting six years to discover “America is addicted to oil”?
How about gross incompetence and cronyism in virtually all aspects of government, from Pentagon planning for Iraq, to Katrina response, to flunking grades on national security from the 9/11 Commission.
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So, to sum up
Bush took a record of eight years of peace and prosperity and turned our country into a fiscal, political and international relations mess, turned Afghanistan into a terrorized cornucopia of heroin, and has turned Iraq into a hornets nest of terrorism.