Bush's 5 Biggest National Security Bombs

What is Bush's biggest national security failure?

That's the question National Security Network has tried to tackle in it's new project, Bush's Bombs: A National Security Legacy of Failure.

To answer the question we first had to find them all, and that was no small task. It's taken us more than 50 pages and 11 chapters to find over 100 incidents that we will release over 5 days. Just one week to document 8 years of failure...on just this topic. You can check back for the details here, but we also simplified it a bit.

We couldn't pick one. So, we picked 5 that epitomize the overarching failures of the Bush foreign policy.

In our opinion, Bush's Biggest Bombs are:

Ignoring reality in favor of ideology: The Al-Qaeda Iraq Connection and Justification for War

Systematically running roughshod over our government institutions: FEMA and Hurricane Katrina

Weakening America's global leadership: The Financial Crisis

Disregarding and undermining basic American values and traditions: Abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib

Failing to govern competently: Osama bin Laden's Escape

But that still wasn't enough. Each category includes a series of duds that couldn't be ignored...such as appointing John "I hate the UN" Bolton to the United Nations,failing to keep our promises to our vets, and other offenses.

Taken individually, Iraq, Katrina, Abu Ghraib, or any other Bush failure would be a black mark on this president's legacy. Together, they serve as an indictment of the man who will be remembered as the worst president in US history. Sadly, it's a legacy that won't be solved simply by swearing in a new president.

Every day this week, we'll bring you you a few more chapters in the story of the Bush administration's National Security failures.

In the meantime, what do think of this list, and what do think was Bush's Biggest National Security Bomb?

Comments

[woodsywizz]

1) The "Energy Task Force" with unknown participants and agenda may well have led to our Middle East debacle.

2) Bush's "Soul-Gazing" meet with Putin, wherein they apparently decidely jointly (with many a shot of vodka) to divide up the world and...conquer?

3) Following the Heritage Foundation's advice, Bush appointees were selected for loyalty not competence. Whence all else follows, viz. Iraq, Katrina, etc.

4) At the infamous summit (where Bush pawed the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel) Bush was "secretly" recorded by the Russian FRS (successor to the KGB, NKVD, Cheka, etc.). His inane and spastic remarks clearly showed European and Asian leaders that the American President was a functioning dolt. They have put that knowledge to wicked and effective use.

5) In the middle of attempts to rein in Iranian nuclear ambitions, Bush travelled to India for a giveaway treaty, allowing them to increase their own military nukes IN VIOLATION OF THE NON-PROLIFERATION PACT. On his way home, he stopped in to visit (and by inference shame) President Musharref of Pakistan, giving him nothing at all. Of course, not only is Pakistan the critical, the keystone country in dealing with Al Qaeda/Taliban, but also is an Islamic nation that HAS nuclear weapons. A decent set of financial incentives (e.g., reduction of tariffs on textile exports to the US) would have helped stabilize it's economy and strenthened the government's hand against the extremists that may yet gain control of the "Islamic Bomb."

[rbenjamin]

Bush was an accident waiting to happen, He and his bombs are symptoms of deeper problems.

1) Increasing concentration of wealth and a shift from meritocracy towards plutocracy, nepotism & oligarchy . Would there have been a Bush II without Bush I? For that matter, a Bush I......

2) Inadequate Federal Gov transparency and accountability compounded by non-proportional representation and winner take-all allocation of executive responsibility. We did modern republican government first, but not necessarily best. With respect to the bombs; did the system work? Sort of, but it took 8 years to get the process going and Bush wasn't forced out, he just timed out.

3) Concentrated media.

4) Public corporations managed like feudal principalities.

5) Globalized economy eroding the political and economic leverage of most US citizens. Perot's sucking sound wasn't just jobs.

[medon]

I agree about Bush but I don"t see the American public taking ANY responsibility for this. Bush is, unfortunately, an out picturing of the American collective consciousness which, for example, fully condones the abuse of prisoners in American jails. We have simply exported, with GWB as the Chimperator in chief, our own values overseas.

We all are 2 and 3 generations removed from and act as mere caricatures of our "Greatest Generation". Bush, for example, belongs in therapy resolving the glories of his father"s life instead of micro-managing a war he treats as a video game.