Stars and Stripes
Bush's sorry legacy

Three years after "shock and awe," now it's called "the Long War," just as the CATO Institute in 2003 said it would be.
Last month, President Bush casually informed Americans that troops would remain there past his second term, 
which ends on Jan. 20, 2009, and not a moment too soon.

What a disaster Bush will leave Americans when calculating the costs of his generational commitment to 
"democratize" the Middle East. Columbia and Harvard economics professors estimate the U.S. 
invasion/occupation of Iraq through 2010 will cost taxpayers $1 trillion, minimum.

In "The True Costs of the Iraq War," Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University professor of economics) states, 
"One cannot help but wonder: were there alternative ways of spending a fraction of the war's $1-$2 trillion
in costs that would have better strengthened security, boosted prosperity, and promoted democracy?"

And spared lives? 
Clearly, but at a loss of billions in contracts to Halliburton/KBR, Bechtel and the Carlyle Group, 
of which George H.W. Bush is senior adviser. If it weren't for war, the Bush family empire would be bankrupt. 
Self-enrichment is why Bush and (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair were determined to launch an invasion
against Iraq. That's why Iran is next.

Bush has said that he wouldn't be in Iraq if not for a good reason. 
Bush isn't in Iraq, and neither are members of his family. 

Some soldiers are on their third deployment and wish to be liberated from stop loss. 
Bush likely won't initiate a "front-door" draft before the elections, which means more 
troop deployments until help - a new Congress and commander in chief - arrives.

Bush's policy of touting peace and democracy while dropping bombs on oil-producing countries 
and promoting crony capitalism in an America deteriorating into a feudal backwater will be 
Bush's legacy as the worst president in U.S. history.
 
Michele W

 

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