Everywhere you go, you hear, "What has happened to the United States of America? We thought you used to be the champion of human rights. We thought you used to protect the environment. We thought you used to believe in the separation of church and state," the Nobel Peace Prize winner said Friday at Unity Temple. "That's not the case anymore."
Let me add the following: What happened to compassionate conservatism? What happened to uniting the country? What happened to restoring integrity and honesty to the White House?
Referring to his latest book's title, Carter said the Bush administration is responsible for the country's moral crisis. He railed Bush's pre-emptive war policy; the erosion of the church-state separation; a ballooning budget deficit; inadequate attention to the environment; and the use of torture against some prisoners.
This appears to be a fairly astute observation. How will Bush rank among presidents? Only time will tell, but I don't think history will be kind to him. If anyone out there cares to comment, I'd be interested in hearing one positive contribution you think Bush has made to this country and to his legacy.
3 comments:
How will Bush rank among presidents? Only time will tell, but I don't think history will be kind to him.
How will Bush rank? I believe he will rank among America's worst presidents ever. His legacy will be Abu Grahib, torture, and secret prisons. Certainly, that is the way I'll always view him. As a disgrace to vurtually everything that Americans value.
I'd be interested in hearing one positive contribution you think Bush has made to this country and to his legacy.
Routing the Taliban out of Afghanistan was unquestionably a good thing. It might surprise, but I actually was a strong supporter of Bush at that point. He did what the once-might Soviet empire could not. (And, frankly, I had my doubts going in, mainly because logistical reasons - fighting in Afghanistan is not an easy thing. Still, Bush created a true coalition and got that jobs done, and at that time, I was a huge supporter.)
Since then, though, he has squandered our national treasure - our American principles - and with literally nothing meaningful accomplished.
Okay, I'll give Bush credit for Afghanistan, but not totally. Bush had no choice in the matter after 9/11 - nearly the entire country was behind that effort. I think Bush saw Afghanistan as a stepping stone to Iraq and decided to capitalize on it. That partially negates the good in my mind.
I don't think Afghanistan was such a great accomplishment myself. Yeah we got rid of the Taliban, but not really. They're still out there terrorizing the local population and the infrastructure, that was pretty awful when we got there, is now non-existent.
Meanwhile, you have young daughters being sold to druglords because we insist on perpetrating a war on poppy growers when that's the only form of commerce that the poor farmers can make a living wage on. We destroy some dirt poor jamoke's crop instead of going after the processors and it destroys families.
Not to mention, though it gets no press, our soldiers are still dying there.
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