Almost There

We're almost to the end of George W. bUSH's presidency as it either has a bit more over 2 years or a few months if Democrats decide to press the impeachment issue. What has he done? What will George W. bUSH's legacy be?

bUSH took office on Jan. of 2001 only to see the nation attacked by terrorists on Sept 11 2001. That marked a day of tragedy and infamy for this nation and brought a new age to America. The post 9-11 era has been a bit odd, with threat levels and an emphasis put on Homeland Security and all that good stuff. What kind of impact did it have?? In Oct. 2001 the Patriot Act was hastily passed by Congress giving the government a lot of "tools" to fight terrorism, such as "sneak and peek" warrants, the ability to see financial, library and other records on a whim and wiretapping. Instead of keeping with what America was founded on, you know, the Constitution which includes the Bill of Rights; while fighting terrorists we end up losing rights that we once had, all in the name of security. So, right away bUSH took away our rights.

Fiscally bUSH has provided some Americans with tax cuts, while not exactly cutting back on spending, except in areas that really can't afford cuts like COPs grants, education, medicare and veterans benefits (while sending our military into war). The tax cuts are amazing for the rich. To those that received tax cuts, I'll venture out and say your cut is worth more then I make in a year. When bUSH inherited the office from President Clinton, he came in and had a budget surplus. In fact Clinton started paying down our National Debt. Within a year, the surplus was gone, turned into a deficit and the national debt started to soar. Fiscally he's left my children and grandchildren a lot to clean up. So fiscally, he's passed on the burden of his greed to future generations while doing nothing to help those who need help now.

Internationally bUSH squandered an oppurtunity to gain prestige and respect gained from the tragedy of 9-11 and turned it to contempt for America. Instead of being a diplomat he was a DIP low matt and went to war with Iraq, promising to find WMDs. That was a mistake as he had absolutely no support from some key allies such as Germany, France and Russia. He used all the prestige and such he had from 9-11 to pick a war with a nation whose only mistake was having a brutal dictator, with no ties to al Qaeda. All the while promising to capture Osama bin Laden who WAS behind the 9-11 attacks on this country. Well bin Laden's still free, we're still in Iraq and haven't found any WMDS and we seem to be gaining more and more enemies worldwide. Yikes. Even more for the next generation and the next President to clean up. So his international legacy will be one of contempt by a lot of nations and a lot of people.

I didn't even mention the aftermath of Katrina that his administration bungled and already it doesn't look good. I am not a pundit nor a historian but as far as I can tell, bUSH's legacy will not be something to proud of. I cannot wait to put this 8 years behind us. It's already time to move on, so the next two years are going to be long.