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.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
George Bush has made the word "legacy" into a pornographic term.
I have lived on this great earth 58 yrs. and I have never seen an individual who could care less about the very citizenry that he swore on the bible to protect. This great nation made a grave mistake in letting him into office not once but twice !!
I still know in my own heart the votes were manipulated and that was the very beginning of the end .
What is this person going to place in his Presidential Library ??
Will it be more lies more manipulation !!
I am far from a perfect .guilt free human being, but I just cannot understand how he still smiles and acts like he is on top of the world.
Gore won in 2000.
I agree with you completely! He lost the popular vote and manipulated a victory handed to him by the Supreme Court. He immediately steered far to the right. He was on vacation half the time. When 9-11 hit, he got on some rubble with a bullhorn and for that was compared to George Washington and Lincoln. He has put former energy execs in all management positions of EPA undermining environmental laws. He ignored Katrina victims. He let his crazy neocon cabal attack a country who did not attack us on trumped up charges. Then he repeatedly lied about the progress in the war.
This litany is all too familiar. The man, Bush, seems to lack any moral compass. He smiles and laughs while the world is in flames through his policies. He stands for little in the international community other than war. He has walked away from Kyoto and has said a president has unlimited powers in time of war. He is a danger. Bush just has no understanding of a constitutional system and almost was successful through intimidation of creating some kind of monarchy. We survived Bush just barely.
"What is this person going to place in his Presidential Library ??"
Comic books, my friend, his favorite comicbooks.
Damned if I wasn't just thinking the same thing!
So was I!
If there is any spirit and intelligence left in the American people, Bush's legacy will be to have brought it back to life, prepared the ground and ushered in one of the best American President's - a man probably representing his and his supporter's worst nightmare.
Bob, I believe you nailed it. Good job!
IMPEACH!!!
History will not look kindly upon Mr. Bush, assuming we live to tell about it. I'm glad to see his long-overdue political obituary popping up like crabgrass lately. When he stood at the back door of the White House doing a tap dance it became evident how irrelevant he had become, but the evidence of his crimes and the damage he has done will (I hope) haunt those who voted for him for decades (and the history books for centuries). Good article, Mr. Cesca.
You will NOTget the same answer if you ask Israel. Israel’s leaders have expressed many times that Bush has been the best friend of Israel. As long as we keep electing politicians who would put Israel’s interest before American interest, our problems will get worst rather than getting better. For example when it comes to Iran, Israel’s interest and American interest do not coincide. Since Iran has been isolated from American Businesses, the big gainers have been mainly China, India and Russia. At the time American businesses were prohibited to do business in Iran, Chinese and Russian businesses have been signing multi-billion Dollars contracts. If US-Iran relations is ever improved, Iran would make a strong and effective US ally in the Middle East and US may not have to rely on Israel so much. Consequntly there would be no longer any reason for billions of Dollars of annually financial and military US aides to Israel. For that exact reason, every time there is a chance that there could be some improvement in the US-Iran relation, the process is sabotaged directly by Israel or indirectly via Israel’s special interest groups such as AIPAC.
http://www
'Faster, Please!'
Senate report exposes key role of the Israel lobby in fomenting war with Iran
Our invasion of Iraq has led directly to a looming confrontation with Iran, just as the war-planners knew it would. What the second portion of the Senate report shows, however, is that we are also prisoners of the Israel lobby, which is inexorably pushing us into war with Iran. That lobby exercises enormous power in Washington and beyond, effectively policing not only the media but the government for the least sign of "anti-Israel" (i.e., pro-American) activity, relentless in pursuit of its goals " and its enemies.
Yet there is growing resistance to the Lobby's hegemony, especially within intelligence, counter-in
Now the Senate report has blown away much of their cover; that and the recent exposure of Ben Ami Kadish, an Israeli spy ... constitute a double body-blow to Israel's fifth column in America " which is, today, just another name for the War Party and its top leadership.
It looks like, Bush's "cronies" were also used as usefull idiots to achieve goals on another nation's agenda.
Yeah, right.....
Israel CONTROLS the United States.
I can't IMAGINE another nation (like, well Saudi Arabia) might have some influence on our foreign policy.
Tool.
Beengo!!
you also will not get the same reply if you ask the stockholders of Haliburton, Bechtel, and the other warmongeri
please read the thread regarding John Cusack's film about this very subject.
Ultimately the problem is our so called Congress-- a bunch of corporate ass kissing lackeys who other than get us into an illegal, unnecessary war, and then pretend to argue about how/when to stop it, have done nothing much of import for the last eight years. "Nero fiddled while Rome burned".
YOU ARE WRONG! It is very popular to think that Israel or Jews or AIPAC is the secret influence on this deranged president. Israel STRONGLY lobbied against Bush's war in Iraq -- at every stage. Israel survives amidst 24 hostile neighbors by a balance of power. Iraq was the counterbalance to Iran. Bush increased Iran's influence and military capabilities many-fold. Israel rightly perceives itself as the second biggest casualty of Bush's war. Now, Israel has a nearly-nuclear Iran that no longer has to be prepared for potential war with Iraq, AND 22 other Arab states blame it (as do you) for Bush's war crimes.
Israel's AIPAC war lobby acts in a way that suits Israel's best interests, not
the USA's. Can there ever really be peace in that region while we are arming
both Israel and Saudi Arabia to the teeth with all the latest technology, fighter jets
and weoponry money can buy?
I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy. I'd say he's the 43rd best President we've ever had.
you are funny, MajorKong.
After careful consideration, I'm with MajorKong!
If he was smart , he'd resign now ,but smart and bush do not belong in the same sentence without a not between them. Soon to be the 44th worst pres.
I just saw a list of worst presidents, guess who's on top?
One hint: It ain't Richard Nixon
The only reason Bush is the President is because American people voted for him TWICE. Now, how many of you voted for him previously? I'm not for Bush by any means, but one thing we must remember is that President doesn't just declare to be one, but it takes people's vote for one to be the President. I just hope that we won't make the same mistake just like 4 years ago.
http://en.
Bush was not "elected" to the office of POTUS; he was "appointed" by then-FL. Sec. of State, Katherine Harris. She was allowed to halt the Florida recount (in an historic one-time only SCOTUS decision), when it was proven the Repubs were doing massive voter suppression and voter fraud in the State. In '04, the electronic voting machines were found to be "malfunctioning" (even giving Kerry NEGATIVE votes) in Dem counties. Many precincts were closed because there were not enough voting machines, and the Repubs were actively doing voter suppression by intimidation.
Watch the HBO documentary "Recount" for an accurate depiction of the 2000 election, or go to Black Box Voting.
You guys who say that the elections in 2000 and 2004 were stolen have a point. It sure may have been the case and I resent it if that is truly the case.
But at the same time, if Al Gore and John Kerry had attracted enough number of people that could have resulted in landslide victory, there wouldn't have any chance that Bush could have stolen the election.
My point is we need wide enough margin so that Republicans cannot play any trick on us.
Too bad that this theory has been proven false on so many levels so many times by so many different investigations. Only the wacked out would believe that either of the elections were "stolen". Only the wacked out would believe anything hollywood produces as the truth.
In point of fact, the 2000 election was stolen (Florida). And many believe, including myself, that the 2004 election was stolen as well (Ohio).
That's irrelevant, Frappe. It never should have been that close.
Between selfishness and ignorance, the (almost) majority of Americans voted this guy in, not once, but twice! As the shrub tried to say, "Fool you once, shame on me, fool you twice, shame on you."
In 2004 when it was clear (to many) this man had no plan but keep cutting taxes for his rich buddies and keep the war going for their corporations, we had the opportunity to get him out. We didn't.
We've got housing prices plummeting, fake inflation numbers, US declining dollars, fake employment numbers, and a stock market that's up less than one percent per year (negative if adjusted for the inflation numbers, real or imaginary as they are).
Think we've lost face on the world stage? Try laughing stock for reelecting is cowboy-on-
Not to be partisan, but we can fix this mess or finish digging this bottomless pit on the first Tuesday in October.
You have a good point. Nothing will change until majority of people in this country realize that they are the main source cause and perhaps feel guilty enough to do something about it or prevent it from happening again. The politicians who initiate wars are all publicly elected. Without public support they would never get to such position of authority. Public mostly in forms of taxes also pays for such actions. The bottom line is that shame and shame on us.
I am very, very proud to say that I never voted for any of the Bush presidencies, neither Sr. nor the Shrub.
Amen!!
A lot of people in florida would disadree. They would hold on to the fact that the other than supreme court appointed bush the president.
WHY DO WE IMPEACH A PRESIDENT FOR LYING ABOUT A BLOWJOB ...
BUT WE DON'T IMPEACH A PRESIDENT GUILTY OF THE WORST CRIME - TREASON!
THIS COUNTRY'S ELECTED OFFICIALS ARE PATHETIC
Because we have a very corrupt congress.
One Nation Under Fear: Scaredy Cats and Fear-Mongers in the Home of the Brave (And What You Can Do About It)
by Bob Cesca
Hi Bob, Good post as always. I hope that Bush will be treated like people treat any other infamous criminal. He will have to travel with an entourage and will be booed out of restaurants, off of the golf course, and anywhere he mingles with the public. I can only hope.
I just pre-ordered your book. Since 9-11, I have been amazed that we could be a nation of people who live in fear of a terrorist attack.
It's not that an attack is not possible, but fear isn''t really the "American Way", is it? Any one of us could be killed or injured in a car wreck, but we continue to drive and we don't lie awake at night fretting over that possibility.
I'll be interested in reading your book. Maybe there is something I don't get about the fear of attack, although I do understand that people in New York and Washington, D.C. have legitimate cause for concern. I don't understand the fear of the other Americans who are afraid.
Perhaps those of us who grew up during the Cuban Missile crisis just view the threat a little differently.
This Memorial Day I took my family to see where George W. Bush will live out his remaining life. Most of it was fun, like lunching in the local restaurant. We watched dozens gleefully jump off a cliff into a deep section of a true Texas swimming hole. We stopped at the only souvenir shop remaining open along the storefronts along a single block in downtown Crawford.
I bought my own "luvya dubya" bumper sticker! The friendly, bored shop clerk told us why no G.W. Bush bobble heads and only a few Laura Bush bobble heads were left: the entire shipment from China was lost in anchorage at New Orleans, LA during 2005's Hurricane Katrina: the firm that made them never recovered!
We almost stopped following her directions to the main checkpoint. We slowed to circle back down along the road we came on. A casually-dressed tall but robust man stepped from behind a guard shack to display an assault rifle in his left hand while he gestured firmly at us with his right: "Do not stop, turn around and leave the area." His big hand on the big gun impressed us not to ask questions.
It was a panicked retreat that my sister and I and our elderly parents beat, unbelievably with a black-tinted dark suburban with red foglights tailing us all the way back downtown. We had rented a midsize car, so maybe that spooked the spooks. I was stunned at the armed reception.
As I see it, we are all charged with forever ensuring that this administration's disastrous legacy never gets whitewashed. It has been promised, and we can see it happening already, that Republicans will do everything possible to rewrite history. Unfortunately, we will be fighting this legacy rewrite for decades to come. We must never become complacent, we must never forget what an awful, awful President GWB has been.
A Bush 'think tank' (an oxymoron almost without the oxy) is going to be built along with the 'Bush Library' at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Besides destroying the reputation of a once respected school, it will become a resource for hate groups, extremists and liars, as it will headed by non other than Karl Rove. There is a movement among Methodists to stop the creation of this shrine to arrogance and incompetence. Please get involved. Here are some links below for more info:
Links to more Information on the SMU Bush Project :
http://www
www.usnews
http://bus
http://bus
http://www
http://bus
http://bus
http://med
Donnat -- feel free to post this if it will help your cause...
http://www
SMU will forever be shamed. I don't think Slick willy hung a albatross around the neck of a university. Bush's arrogance is breathtaking.
One of the lasting results of the Bush years will be the destruction of the main stream media. They failed to do their job and as a result have lost the confidence of the people. We depend on a free press to keep us informed and they failed to do so. They will be replaced by the Internet and then perhaps we can get the truth and be able to govern this country as Lincoln said by the people for the people.
A few large corporations are pushing for more control of this medium -- the internet. For that reason, it's critically important for us to remain ever vigilant in support of "Net Neutrality"
Once Obama is elected I dont think they will have a leg to stand on. There is still hope.
So, what will the people designing his "library" design for?
Maybe it will look like a ICBM with a silly lpooking cowboy riding on it? Or maybe it will look like a oil derrick.
Yeah. Hope they can find room for the book.
You know that small area in your local supermarket where the coloring books are? That's what the designers are trying to re-imagine on a larger scale. How will they do it? My guess is bigger coloring books.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
