Sorry, Mr. President, But Your Legacy Is More Awful Than You Think

Rest assured, Mr. President, that despite what you told the Times Online today you won't be remembered solely as a war mongering president.

"Look, I think that in retrospect, you know, I could have used a different tone."

Different tone? Ya think?

War mongering is a significant aspect of your legacy, but I think we can conclude, and without much debate, that your legacy will also be one of criminality, failure and a degree of incompetence rarely achieved by any American president, much less one whose deficit of character is rivaled only by his nearly unprecedented lack of humility in the face of his unprecedented roster of inadequacies.

Sorry.

As it turns out, you won't have much control over your legacy and the history of your administration anyway. You might have some cursory input, but no-one really takes you seriously anymore and anything you put forth will be taken as just another work of fiction; another bit of propaganda.

Your legacy will ultimately be written by those of us who have been actively documenting your presidency in real time -- millions of voices authoring the narrative of your awful regime and preserving it with digital clarity one trespass at a time.

And everywhere we look, we can plainly observe your smirking, affectless footprint.

Death, poverty, war, pain, ignorance, blind patriotism, joblessness, and abandoned homes. And guess what? We're writing it down on the Internets. Your history, Mr. President, is being written at this very moment by those of us who are watching our homes collapse in value and our friends and relatives sent to places like Ramadi and Fallujah and, in some cases, Walter Reed or worse. Your history, Mr. President, isn't going to be settled and published decades from now. It's being published immediately and without the fog of memory to obscure the ugly details.

These ugly details are exhaustively researched and easily accessible.

And as they congeal into a single eight-year narrative, it's my hunch that every tragedy experienced during this dark ride will be regarded as a means to a specific end: your election to a second term and the election of successors who will carry on with your sinister tradition. The centerpiece of this tradition -- the throughline of your presidential narrative -- has been, simply put, endless war for the sake of re-election.

In fact (and contrary to your present lamentation) you wanted war even before you took office. War, by your own definition, would all but guarantee a second presidential term. You told your pre-2000 autobiographer, Mickey Herskowitz:

"One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief... My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it...If I have a chance to invade...if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."

Four years later, as you ramped up your re-election campaign, you told Tim Russert:

"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind."

You didn't sound ashamed of your tone back then -- when you were running for your second term. Everything you managed to accomplish during your presidency was directed towards maintaining this manufactured "war president" façade. Without it, you would have been either defeated in 2004 or impeached a long time ago.

So how did you do it? History will show that you bought off the American people with $300 checks and massive tax cuts for Paris Hilton and Dick Cheney. You ruthlessly exploited the deadliest foreign attack on American soil and, subsequently, terrorized this nation and its corporate media into giving you more latitude than you otherwise deserved. You attempted to dumb down our public schools because, in your view, an educated electorate is a dangerous electorate -- less susceptible to war mongering and propaganda, right? You ignored the destruction of an entire American city because the majority of its residents probably didn't vote for you or contribute to your campaign for war in the first place. And your entire foreign policy has been constructed around deliberately inciting anti-American sentiment, thus fueling more war.

It turns out, Mr. President, that your only success is something which you appear to be walking back: your war mongering -- your cynical, self-serving and bloody "bring 'em on" legacy -- and, with it, your re-election in 2004.

If you were half the man your dwindling supporters claim that you are, you would own this actual legacy of yours, Mr. President.

If you were a better man, you would own the horror you've created for yourself and generations of Americans to come. You would take responsibility for more than your pathetic "tone" and "rhetoric" -- you would take responsibility for all of it: the lies, the casualties, the mistakes, the crimes and the cover-ups. Instead you're presently flying around the world saying that you "wanted to solve this ... in a diplomatic fashion" when we all know, based on numerous reports from insiders ranging from Scott McClellan to Richard Clarke that this is simply not true.

The historical record of your presidency has unequivocally verified that, even now as you attempt to Windex the crap off your legacy, you're lying about the war. But what's worse is that your administration's objective of fostering endless American warfare continues in Iraq and elsewhere while being endorsed by Senator McCain who has hugged-out any conflicts he might have had with your policies. And, if you and Senator McCain are lucky, the corporate media will crack open its Election Year Mad Libs script and paint Senator Obama as somehow more dangerous to the future of America than you ever were.

Your legacy, Mr. President, isn't just about war mongering. We're going to see to it that your legacy is almost entirely about how you lied us into an unnecessary war as part of an almost unspeakably horrible strategy for re-election -- as a way to mask over your inadequacies as a leader and to somehow delude future Americans into believing that your two-term presidency deserves special renown.

So good luck with all of that "different tone" crap. It's not going to work. Sorry.

Bob Cesca's Goddamn Awesome Blog! GO!

Comments

[tbone99]

Don't forget the pedophile in the Homeland Security and the the list of 1500 pedophile names given to the DOJ that they did nothing with:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susie-bright/chester-the-molestor-hom_b_21440.html

[larryburns94]

What kind of legacy will John Edwards leave?

"My position is very clear: The time has come for decisive action to eliminate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. I'm a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Resolution that's presently under consideration in the Senate. Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave threat to America and our allies. We know that he has chemical and biological weapons today, that he's used them in the past, and that he's doing everything he can to build more. Every day he gets closer to his long-term goal of nuclear capability."

Senator John Edwards (Democrat, North Carolina)
Speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
October 7, 2002

[nirek]

Bush will go down in history as THE WORST president ,ever.

[scootmandubious]

All those thousands upon thousands of both American and Iraqi casualties demand that this man be impeached and charged with war crimes for lying us into a war.

The question is will the Democrats grow a spine and do what's right?

Still waiting.

[nirek]

I agree we dems. should go forward with impeaching Bush and Cheney , we also know that the repugs. will block it, but it will be on the record.

[larryburns94]

Should we go after Pelosi too?

"Saddam Hussein certainly has chemical and biological weapons. There's no question about that."

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California)
During an interview on "Meet The Press"
November 17, 2002

[scooperss]

I'm tired of the spineless mewling of *we don't have the votes*.

They don't have the votes on amnesty for illegals but they keep putting amnesty of some form in just about every bill they spew forth.

I'm tired of them saying they have more important things to do.
If they have other things more important than following the laws I'd like to know what they are. Naming bridges, naming post offices, naming buildings? Bull

Frankly their excuses don't work with me. I see them every day trying to pass something they know won't pass but they still try.

It's not only the bush legacy. it's the House's legacy, the Senate's legacy and ultimately the voter's legacy. I for one am not going to be vilified for giving these people my vote for doing nothing to stop this runaway government. I'll vote third party first and know that I tried with MY vote.

[pmorlan]

In case you haven"t seen it yet, McClatchey is doing a 5 day series called Guantanamo Beyond the Law. It will end on Thursday. Here are the topics and a link.

ABOUT THIS SERIES
An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad.
Today: We got the wrong guys
Coming Monday: "I guess you can call it torture"
Tuesday: A school for Jihad
Wednesday: "Due process is legal mumbo-jumbo"
Thursday: "You are the king of this prison"
READ THE EVIDENCE
Browse an archive of documents obtained by McClatchy in the course of this investigation.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/

[Glaswegian]

Dubya's apology tendered in Europe this week for his belligerent language over the years was made, he said, in the hope he would not be remembered as a warmonger. He will be remembered as exactly that,not because of his language, but because of the wars he has mongered.

[TonyOnly]

Like most things in life, a legacy depends on your point of view. When Dubya took office, the price of a barrel of oil was $24. In this year that he vacates the office, the price of a barrel of oil has gone above $130. a barrel and combined oil company profits are well over 100 billion dollars a year. These are profit levels that have never before been reached by any companies, in any industry, in the history of our civilization. Not to mention the fact that the American oil companies now have control over 30 trillion dollars worth of Iraqi oil assets. If you're an oil pusher, Dubya's war in Iraq has been an outstanding success.

[greatjumpingjosephat]

I remember before the 2nd election something said about the arabs were to suppose to keep gas prices down as a contribution to their effort in helping get Bush reelected.

[levibatgirl]

Lord have mercy!

Truer words......

[Glaswegian]

Dubya's apology in Europe this week for belligerent language over the years was, he said, tendered in the hope he would not be remembered as a warmonger. He will be remembered as exactly that, not because of his language but because of the wars he has mongered.

[Linglu]

We need to talk to anyone that will listen. Email our friends. It's very scary. On the radio the other day a guy said he was Republican because he was afraid the
Democrats would take his guns away.
Between the Repugs cheating and idiots like him we could wind up with Mr. Magoo.

[Swedishgal]

Don't worry about that idiot and his guns because all the candidates the NRA backed lost last time around. Democrats haven't said a word about guns or controls and they're still scared sh*tless that we're going to take their guns away. Let's see now, Repubs like war because it allegedly keeps us safe to fight them over there, they love guns, they love nukes and are scared to death that Obama is going to decrease the number that we and other countries have, man they are a bunch of weenies! They call lib men gay but they act more sissified in their fear of everything than any gay man I've ever seen. My brother and sister-in-law are a few of the 23%-ers that believe Bush doesn't lie. These are the people that scare me the most.

[FreeThinkn1]

I would add "terrorist appeaser" to Bush's list of deeds:

Early in 2003, the US began to remove troops and shut down bases in Saudi Arabia the home of Islam's holiest sites. The US presence was seen as profane by many Islamists including Osama Bin Laden who stated it was one of the main reasons for the attacks on 9/11.

[ClarkJensen]

In the postmortum of the Bush disaster, we might look carerfully at how Mr. Bush got to where he is.

Let's start with Yale University which must take some of the responsibility for accepting him into the school as part of the so-called "legacy program".

Yale gave him that "legacy" status and propped him up with C-'s so that he could squeak by to graduation day, and it even tapped him for the "honor" of being initiated into Skull and Bones, its own weird brand of ultra-elite secret society,

We would be far better off selecting our nominees from the pool of talented people who made it to the top without being promoted by nepotism.

[VivaZapata]

legacy is what got him into yale and harvard. disrepute is the term he must live down which characterizes his presidency. legacy is something to pass down. let's hope that will never happen again.

[Vinca]

To VivaZapata:I may have said this, quite a few times before, If George Bush , was George Doe, HE COULDN"T HAVE ENTERED THE DOOR AT YALE

[Yohomegirl]

Or African American with his grades.

[mrjonessr41]

And yet with all that,Americans are willing to give him a 3rd term, more than willing to destroy this Country just to keep a Black man out of the White house. Now what does that say about the legacy of America.

[NotWaldo]

George Bush's legacy will include the dumbest statements ever made by a public figure. My favorite one is :

"I try to go for longer runs, but it's tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track. It's sad that I can't run longer. It's one of the saddest things about the presidency."

Interview with "Runners World," Aug. 2002

[LeftLeanWing]

.

"Do you have blacks, too?" "

asked to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso,
Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001