What has Bush done right?

[Shaihulud]

Bush has made me rich . Not rich rich, but some money in stocks.

 

[kingjoshi]

Why stir debate in this thread? As though there isn't enough in the forum. I justed wanted one thread in which people can state how they agree with any Bush administration policies without anyone attacking their intelligence or questioning the policy. I also wanted to get an idea on where people agree with Bush. If you don't agree with anything, then don't post in the thread!

 

[capslock]

Wrecked was indeed a reckless phrase. But there's no smoke without fire. I'm thinking of:

- Heavy, uncharacteristic, Government Spending
- Human Rights Scandals, knocking onto allies' loyalty
- Budget Deficits in all kinds of directions
- Debt Ceilings like never before
- Marred Public Relations around the world
- Embroiling the country in unwinnable wars
- More.

He may not have wrecked the country but he's certainly dishevelled it to a much greater extent than when he received it. (Now do you see why his marital fidelity is such a poor measure?)

Heavy spending is bad, I agree. We have been fighting wars, though, wars I agree with fighting, so I excuse this a bit.

Human rights scandals would be a concern if those leveling the charges weren't so sensitive about war and the things that happen in war. Can you imagine being a soldier, being just as scared of accidentitly commiting a war crime by fireing on a mosque or something like that, as you are of the enemy? If our boys are slaughtering villages, or being ordered to disregard civilians completely, then thats different. I don't believe thats happening, and its not because I'm brainwashed. I think there is lots of exageration here.

I don't really know about economics of budget deficits, so I can't comment. It sounds bad, i guess, lol.

Too much debt is bad.

Marred relations as a result of standing up to our enemies and fighting can't be helped. If they didn't want to help, we should have respected their choice instead of trying to force them to help, but they should respect ours to go after the bad guys.

The wars are only unwinnable because you think they are. Defeatist attitudes don't help anything. I guess I'm a glass is half full guy, you're a glass is half empty?

As for your last paragraph, things got discheveled by events out of his control. Or maybe they were in his control, depending on what you're willing to believe.

Your memory is short here. They were your friends in the 80s. You were happy about that right?

So now you're suddenly happy for those same friends to become your enemies?

You changed your own mind so quickly?

That, to me, is brainwashing in action at worst, as detailed in the post I linked to above, and very fickle at best.

Nothing's changed since the 80's? Is that a reasonable assertion on your part? There isn't anything that changed since then that you can think of, to qualify them as our enemy? (btw I was born in '82, so the 80's to me were swing sets, finger paints, and dodge-ball, not international politics).

I'll check out your brainwashing article a little later.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Somebody finally said it.

There's another thing. It may be Macchiavellian and not the epitome of goodness, but taking the fight to the Middle East (along with upping security and propaganda at home) worked wonders. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic militants now have no choice but to "defend" their homeland. Thus no more attacks in US territory since 2001.

This, Bush and company have done right.

I have no idea if this is why there haven't been further attacks. This could be one reason, or it could be because al Qaeda's base of operations, Afghanistan, was conquered. Or it could be that security has improved. Or it could be any combination of the above.

What I doubt is that Bush actually thought so far ahead as to plan to take the fight to the terrorists. There's every indication that he thought Iraq would be a cakewalk (for example, in May 2003, he gave a dramatic speech on an aircraft carrier that the war was over). It seems more likely that he spun this in retrospect, to justify the invasion after it turned out that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs.

 

[Irish Caesar]

Ram, just so you're not left out in the dungeon on this one, I read and agreed with your post on propaganda. The amount of propaganda turned out by USA's government since WWI has been astounding--you yourself have posted a ton of it here or linked to it regarding WWII, and there's a whole series somewhere (History? H&J?) of Cold War "information" from the CIA.

To my fellow Bush supporters: you are naive if you think the government is not lying to you.

To the others: just because the government lies doesn't mean I necessarily disagree with its actions.

Did you have a better idea?

Remove bureaucracy instead of adding it. If information is getting lost in the shuffle and manipulated by dozens of hands, reduce the number of hands.

 

[Gelion]

What has Bush done right?

He has kids, doesn't he?

 

[MobBoss]

Things done right:

1. Tax cuts (everyone who pays taxes got em, despite popular belief).
2. North Korea.
3. China.
4. National Economy.
5. Attempt at Social Security Reform.
6. Attempt at Ports deal.
7. Puts more minorities into positions of power in his administration.
8. Pakistan/India.
9. More money into education.
10. More money into AIDs relief.
11. More money into stem cell research.
12. Gulf Opportunity Zone.
13. Afghanistan.
14. Welfare reform.
15. Patriot Act.
16. I could think of more if I had more time.

Bad things:

1. Totally dropped the ball on immigration.
2. Spending is out of control.
3. Too loyal to some friends he should have let go long ago.
4. Not too good at getting his message across to the people.
5. And several more things I am sure I missed.

My overall opinion on him is that despite it being a period of big disasters and terrorist strikes and wars, he has led the USA in good, if not popular, fashion. Most likely he will go down in history as the type of person we needed to have for the issues at hand.

 

[Gelion]

Hmmm how would you explain 34% popularity raiting?

 

[Tenochtitlan]

People give Bush way too much credit, for the good things and the bad things he did. What people fail to realize is that he hasn't that much power.

 

[Irish Caesar]

He has plenty, but I'm assuming that you mean he doesn't have nearly the influence on the economy that the Fed does.

 

[kingjoshi]

People give Bush way too much credit, for the good things and the bad things he did. What people fail to realize is that he hasn't that much power.

He probably does get too much credit and blame. But that doesn't diminsh what power he has.

He can decide to attack nuclear sites in Iran today and start a war. He can start the pullout of the troops from Iraq. He controls the most powerful military in the world. He obviously has lots of power. Whether he utilizes that is another issue entirely. Just because a rich man stops off at McDonalds doesn't mean he doesn't have money.

 

[puglover]

1) His ousting of Sadaam
2) His economic decisions (tax cuts, cuts in welfare, etc.)
3) Dubai oil ports
4) Not being afraid of public opinion
5) Afghanistan

 

[Irish Caesar]

The Dubai Ports World deal wasn't about oil...

 

[El_Machinae]

I like that he wanted to get back to the Moon, and maybe Mars.

I don't know how he should handle that goal, but I like it.

 

[Irish Caesar]

A nice idea, but he cancelled the Prometheus Project to do it.

 

[El_Machinae]

The National Institute of Health also had a reduced budget. You know, the group that's trying to discover all those biological facts that I love.

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

My top ten things done right:
1) Most minorities put in positions of actual power by any President ever
2) Initial Afghanistan execution
3) Initial Iraq execution and ouster of Saddam
4) Influence in Darfur (though I think we should have gone in)
5) SouthEast Asia Tsunami & Pakistan Earthquake disaster relief (made it non-partisan by asking 2 former Presidents to go to SEA and an air relief in Pakistan that made the Berlin airlift look small)
6) Attempts at Social Security Reform
7) Attempts for quality guest worker program and immigration reform
8) Attempts for port deal for Dubai
9) Being a leader and not a poll follower
10) Most provisions of the Patriot Act (some I don't like)

 

[ainwood]

Moderator Action: capslock & rambuchan - kindly stop your flaming & trolling.

Bozo Erectus - either report it, or ignore it.

Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Phlegmak]

Hmmm how would you explain 34% popularity raiting?

Polls lie and the media that made the poll has a liberal bias. Of course.

Hmm, things that Bush did right, hmm. Give me a minute.

Still thinking.

The desire to invade Afghanistan? Note that I said "desire." I'm differentiating between wanting to invade it and how things were actually done.

The initial desire to capture Osama bin Laden? Note that I said initial desire, since that priority has dropped significantly. CIA agents (or was it FBI?) also performed badly in trying to actually capture him.

 

[GenMarshall]

That's called racism

or

Wow, fearmongering really works

Just because I fear fundamentalist Muslim Terrorists does not make me a racist.