The Patriot Post® · Gallup Poll: Still Bush's Fault

By Albert Maslar ·
https://patriotpost.us/commentary/19274-gallup-poll-still-bushs-fault-2013-07-24

A recent Gallup poll found that two-thirds of Americans still blame President George W. Bush for America’s current economic woes. In reality it might largely be Bush’s fault in that the Great Recession had already begun near the end of his second term. The seeds were more attributable to the wars of choice in the 2001 attack on Afghanistan and the 2003 pre-emptive attack on Iraq.

President George W. Bush made that error in Afghanistan when he played Texas Cowboy in pursuing Osama bin Laden across borders of sovereign countries we were not at war with. Failing that, in his frustration, he attacked Iraq that posed no viable threat to the US – nor was Saddam Hussein responsible for the initial 9/11/2001 attacks against the US.

There may be merit, though dubious, in the proverb that the sins of the father are visited upon the son, in that G.W.‘s father, President George H. W. Bush, invaded Iraq in 1991 to protect our oil interests in Saudi Arabia that might be threatened if Saddam Hussein were to be successful in taking over oil wells in neighboring Kuwait. Military action was inspired by the Bush family’s close association with the bin Laden family and other members of the oil-wealthy elite in Saudi Arabia. This initial war against Iraq was sanctioned by the UN which continually uses the US military as pawns to accomplish its own agenda. The younger Bush anxiously took to protect family honor and finish the job his father left undone – the deposition of Saddam Hussein.

Bush I’s faults in turn were reprised with Bill Clinton’s faults, include taking the side of Muslims across Africa and Bosnia Kosovo, and continued with Bush II’s faults, going back to FDR who suffered America through four terms as president, setting many of the precedents and seeds of never-ending US pre-emptive wars that have proved to be a cancer upon the US.

And now it is Obama’s fault, but more insidious, as the fault of expanding the wars led to the fall of Egypt and Libya, resulting in worse situations than previous with old-time dictators. More insidious is Obama’s deliberate and malicious abuse of the Constitution on a scale that has never been seen or imagined, resulting in a de facto dictatorship that governs, rules, and mandates arbitrarily beyond the scope of investigators. This inspires the media and keeps alive the perception that Bush can do no right and Obama can do wrong.

The national debt of $17 trillion is manipulated so as not to exceed lawful limits, but at least half is due to the Hatfield-McCoy revenge factor of the Bush presidencies. Obama got to be “War President” as well as Bush II, doing the younger Bush one better by his not-Congressionally approved forays into Egypt, Libya, Syria, North Africa, extending into Pakistan, and initiating controversial drone attacks at will. Promises of ending military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq failed but the UN is calling the shots of date certain for withdrawal, playing footloose and fancy-free with American blood and money.

Republican warhawks led by Senator John McCain, and including Speaker of the House John Boehner, support Syrian rebels by determining which rebel group is “right.” Arm the “right set of rebels in Syria” may be an oxymoron in that if Syrians don’t know, how is dysfunctional Congress supposed to make sound judgement, when the right answer is obvious from the admonitions of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington to avoid foreign entanglements – a most appropriate word.

House and Senate Intelligence committees on 7/22 approved President Obama’s plan for the CIA to begin covert operations to arm Syrian rebels, though there is legitimate concern that weapons would end up in the hands of Islamist militants. And the answer is: These weapons, as in the past, will end up in the hands of Islamist militants.

Anything that can go wrong in the “Muddle” East World, will go wrong. Jabhat al Nusra represents a Syrian Islamist rebel group that pledged its loyalty to al Qaeda. The Obama administration wants to support only those insurgent groups that are not terrorist organizations, an obvious oxymoron. Lots of luck, and LOL – only it is nothing to laugh about.

The US has been at war around the globe for eleven years and the only result is nearly 7,000 dead Americans, an estimated 50,000 serious injuries, millions of opposition deaths, massive destruction, trillion + annual deficits, $17 trillion national debt, despair of the unemployed, and delusion that democracy can be exported to the Islamic World whose Quran is dedicated to submission of the world to Islam. Negotiating with the non-negotiable is impossible. The only real solution is for the US to pull in its horns, withdraw all forces from around the world and cut off all funding to the 57 Muslim nations that are dedicated enemies of the US.