Can't Spell Worst Without W.

The Bush presidency was not a total abject failure. He did manage one notable accomplishment. President Bush had the unenviable challenge of explaining in five words or less why the United States was attacked by Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001 and he managed to exceed expectations. He used four words. Al Qaeda attacked us because “they hate our freedom.” Only a creative genius could manage to explain a catastrophe and at the same time fit the explanation on a bumper sticker.

“As the years passed most Americans were able to return to life as much as it had been before Nine-Eleven,” President Bush said in his last presidential address to the country. “But I never did. Every morning, I received a brief on the threats to our nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.”[i]

This was a “tell.” President Bush was subliminally admitting he did not read the August 6, 2001, Presidential daily Brief (PDB) titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.” He certainly did not act on the threat.

He was on vacation in Crawford, Texas at the time. The ominous memo did not interrupt his vacation. Meetings were not held. Law enforcement agencies were not alerted. The Federal Aviation Administration was not warned. The country was not aware of the threat to national security.

President Bush displayed terrible leadership instincts. He was unable to prioritize. An emergency was placed on his lap and he did nothing.

In contrast, President Bush interrupted his vacation on March 21, 2005, flew from his ranch in Crawford, Texas to Washington DC, to sign bill S.686 into law - the“Terri Schiavo Incapacitated Protection Bill.”

Terri Schiavo was a Florida resident who collapsed in her home on February 25, 1990 after experiencing respiratory and cardiac arrest. Mrs. Schiavo suffered extensive brain damage. She was in a Permanent Vegetative State (PVS) for several years.

Her husband, Michael Schiavo, wanted to remove the feeding tube that kept his wife alive, thus ending her life. Mrs. Schiavo’s parents objected. The matter was taken to the Florida courts. The state court was about to rule in Mr. Schiavo’s favor.

Republicans in the United States Senate intervened with bill S.686. The purpose of the bill was to transfer jurisdiction from the Florida state courts to the federal courts. President Bush interrupted his vacation to sign bill S.686 into law.

In August 2001, President Bush was notified the country was about to be attacked and did nothing, but in March 2005 President Bush interrupted his vacation to interject himself into a family dispute. President Bush failure to prioritize is just one example of his failure as president.

Failing to act on the August 2001 Presidential Daily Brief led to other failures. Once lives were lost, President Bush began to overcompensate, to overreact. President Bush established the “Preemptive War Doctrine,” also known to everyone, except Governor Sarah Palin, as the Bush Doctrine.

The Bush Doctrine is as simple as the bearer of the doctrine’s name. Attack a country before it attacks you. Do not wait for a country to become an actual threat. President Bush launched an attack on a sovereign country based on a hypothetical threat.

Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator. His regime murdered thousands of Iraqis. Saddam Hussein invaded Iran. The war with Iran lasted eight years. Saddam Hussein also invaded Kuwait in 1990. In 2002, Saddam Hussein became a threat to world peace.

The Bush administration argued Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. He was a threat to world peace because he was evil. Vice President Cheney argued Saddam Hussein was linked to Al Qaeda. If Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, then he could conceivably furnish Al Qaeda with weapons of mass destruction. Al Qaeda was a threat to the United States; therefore Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States. The hypothetical threat had to be resolved.

The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003. Saddam Hussein was removed from power, but weapons of mass destruction were never found. The link between Iraq and Al Qaeda never existed.

President Bush attributed the absence of weapons of mass destruction to poor intelligence. It is more likely that President Bush could not tell the difference between good intelligence and bad intelligence.

For example, Vice President Cheney hyped CIA intelligence indicating Saddam Hussein purchased aluminum tubes. The aluminum tubes could be used as “rotors that spin at extraordinarily high speeds in gas centrifuges that turn uranium into highly enriched uranium – the material needed for a nuclear weapon.”[ii]

Except that the Department of Energy concluded the aluminum tubes did not meet the specifications required for centrifuges. Instead, the aluminum tubes met the specifications for rockets.

The Bush Administration did not allow facts to get in the way of their propaganda. The Mainstream Media cooperated with the Bush Administration. A unnecessary war was launched against a sovereign country that was not a threat to the United States.

A president is a like a football coach. A good coach could identify the abilities of his players, and put his players in the best position to succeed.

It was bad enough President Bush initiated a war against Iraq. His poor judgment was exacerbated by the lack of preparation when the United States military actually invaded Iraq.

President Bush wanted to eliminate Saddam Hussein as a threat to the United States. He wanted to overthrow the Iraqi regime and replace it with a pro western liberal democracy.

Did he place the troops in a position to succeed? No, he did not. He invaded a sovereign country that was not a threat to the United States. Iraq disintegrated into a violent, sectarian civil war. American soldiers were caught in the middle of warring factions.

Did President Bush use sufficient number of troops to accomplish the mission of removing Saddam Hussein from power, then protecting Iraq from chaos? No, he did not.

President Bush liked to say that he listened to the generals, except for four-star army general Eric Sinseki who testified before Congress and said that several thousand soldiers would be needed to invade and secure Iraq.

The logic behind the numbers was to compare Iraq, in size and population, with another territory. Iraq is the size of California with a population of 24 million. If you need 150,000 law enforcement personnel in California, a territory that is not facing disruption, then the number of soldiers needed to secure Iraq would have to be four to five times greater than in California because Iraqi society would be greatly disrupted.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld disagreed. He thought the mission could be accomplished with one hundred thousand troops. President Bush listened to Rumsfeld instead of a four-star general.

Were the troops given the equipment needed for the mission to succeed? No, they were not. For example, the vehicles used in the Iraq War did not have enough armor to protect the soldiers. Soldiers had to use scrap metal to secure their vehicles.

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was criticized, but his answer was that “you go to war with the army you have, not the army you need.”

Using the football analogy, President Bush put five football players on the field, without pads and helmets, to play against eleven fully equipped players.

President Bush put American troops in a difficult position where success was dubious, did not send enough troops to secure Iraq, and he did not give the troops the equipment needed to succeed.

President Bush’s overreaction to the August 2001 Presidential Daily Brief was not limited to the invasion of Iraq. Our laws regarding torture were also compromised.

President Bush became too sensitive. He was given information and did not act on it; therefore he needed more information to prevent another attack. In his simplistic world, the best way to obtain more information was to beat it out someone. Torturing people was necessary in order to prevent another attack.

In addition, the Bush Administration eavesdropped on telephone calls, and monitored emails without probable cause, without warrants. The legal process was a nuisance, preventing President Bush from protecting America.

The Bush Administration proudly proclaimed that the United States, at the expense of civil liberties, was not attacked – since September 11, 2001.

President Bush’s two terms were eventful. The United States lost the World Trade Center in a terrorist attack in 2001, a natural disaster incapacitated New Orleans in 2005, and an economic meltdown in 2008. President Bush failed to respond to each of these calamities.

The Bush Administration went on a publicity tour to defend its legacy. The Bush legacy can be described with one word – sloth.

President Bush was a lazy administrator. He prided himself on not reading. He delegated authority, trusting staff to make sound judgments.

We may never know the identity of the person who initially read the August 2001 Presidential Daily Brief, but history will reflect President Bush failed to act when the United States was threatened.

President Bush believed torture was the best way to obtain valuable intelligence. Obtaining warrants was an annoyance. Finding a target to investigate took too much time. Instead, the government spied on everyone.

President Bush’s failure to read or act on the August 2001 Presidential Daily Brief is just one example of his failure as president of the United States. This specific failure led to other failures.

Suppose the Bush Administration succeeded in disrupting the September 11, 2001 attack. Preemptive war might not have been compulsory. President Bush would not have had an excuse to invade Iraq. Civil liberties would remain intact. The imperial presidency would not have weakened our democracy.

Hopefully, the real legacy of George Bush will be the rejection of another late bloomer.

Hopefully, Americans will reject an individual who is not qualified to be president regardless of how amiable that person is.

Hopefully, intelligence will matter. Someone who never demonstrated practical intelligence in the past will not suddenly become intelligent once elected president.

Hopefully, Americans will be suspicious when the vice presidential candidate is clearly more qualified than the presidential candidate.

Unfortunately, the real Bush legacy will be the belief that if someone as incapable as George W. Bush could be president of the United States, then I can be president of the United States.

I guess we will find out the true meaning of the Bush legacy when Governor Sarah Palin runs for president in 2012.


[i] Text “President Bush’s Last Televised Address,” New York Times, January 15, 2009.
[ii] Michael Isikoff and David Corn, “Hubris,” Crown Publishers, New York, 2006, page 37-38.