Bush, Bush Supporters, and the Judgment of History
Bush said toppling Saddam would make the world safer. With the Mideast on the edge of Armageddon, it's now clear which maniac really needed toppling.
 

August 4 2006
Counterbias.com
STEVE HOROWITZ
 

The most detested world leader since Hitler has succeeded in alienating friend and foe alike. It is in direct response to his bellicose rhetoric, to a proclivity for military aggression once unimaginable in an American president, that his so-called "axis of evil" has not only prospered, but gained new axes.

Instead of no-fly zones in Iraq, we have a civil war killing 100 civilians a day, and almost 2,600 dead Americans who couldn't stop it. Israel is using American weapons to kill hundreds of Lebanese civilians and earn the condemnation of the world, as Condoleezza Rice slinks away from the scene, rendered powerless by the Bush doctrine she relentlessly promoted. The Palestinians have a democratically elected terrorist government. And the Taliban is still a force to be reckoned with in Afghanistan, as Osama bin Laden patiently plans his next attack.

Try to comprehend the magnitude of the unrelenting Bush disaster: Fiscal irresponsibility that is bankrupting the country and putting our fate in the hands of Asian moneylenders. (Including billions in tax cuts for the rich, as the poor are made to beg for the most menial hike in the minimum wage.) The persistent, willful ignoring of overwhelming scientific evidence showing the danger of global warming -- and America's role in causing it. The use of religion as a campaign tool that exacerbates divisions and promotes intolerance and ignorance -- "The jury's still out on evolution" -- for political gain. The rejection of promising medical research, against all logic and common sense, in the name of a "respect for life," while at least 50,000 Iraqi civilians have died in the process of our liberating them.

And of course, the unifying of all our old enemies -- and the addition of new ones -- in a common cause: the overwhelming desire to defy our will, even when our cause is noble. Because the simple fact is that whenever George W. Bush has championed a noble cause -- democracy, human rights, respect for individual liberties, national security -- we've eventually learned that he was just mouthing platitudes, his shameless hypocrisy revealed in attacks on those who disagree with him (Valerie Plame); egregious violations of national security (Valerie Plame); egregious violations of individual liberties (NSA spying); egregious violations of human rights (Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib); and the twisting of intelligence to mislead our nation into an illegal and unwarranted war, while our true enemy -- al Qaeda -- releases more new videos than MTV, our president and his policies having become their best recruiting tool.

And the worst part: We twice allowed this smirking, boorish ("Yo! Blair!") national embarrassment into the position of power from which he now subverts our ideals and endangers world stability.

If there's a Bush supporter out there who can name one useful thing he's done, foreign or domestic -- one positive effect he's had, or is ever likely to have, or that will not backfire on us with the impact of an Israeli air strike -- I long to hear it. Because it is starkly clear that history will judge this ill-bred, malignant narcissist to be not just the worst American president, but a force for evil in the world unseen since the glory days of fascism and Communism. And judge those who voted for him to be entirely responsible for the worldwide calamity known as George W. Bush.

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