Lut Sein Win - Our Mother's Wars

Because of him, because of him

"We will reopen Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House."

(2000 Election Republican Party Statement)

But they didn't. The obstructions have been there for eight years. It's not a real issue for the election. It's just a stick to beat Bill Clinton, who closed the highway because of the Secret Service's (Bodyguard) eavesdropping. A month after September 11, 2001, Vice President Disney made it clear in an interview with PBS television, "Pennsylvania Avenue should remain closed. Because realistically, if someone were to detonate a truck bomb in front of the White House, the whole White House would be flattened. That's absolutely unacceptable."

September 11 is a story of the Bush administration’s failures and the hopelessness of those who are left behind. It is also a testament to George W. Bush’s claim that he saved America from terrorism. For seven years after that day, the United States was not attacked by any foreign terrorist organization. The point here is that for seven years before 9/11, the United States was not attacked by any foreign terrorist organization. The danger of a 9/11 attack is not greater. The American people are more alert. The Bush administration came into power mocking the fear that the White House would be bombed. But it wasn’t long before those fears were echoed.

Eight years ago, Bush emerged from the lost world and became president. Even Bush’s party, which was out of power at the time, knew that America was a place of prosperity and security that was not threatened by any threat. “Yesterday’s dreams are today’s reality, and tomorrow’s possibilities are limitless,” Bush’s GOP party said at the time. The greatest foreign policy challenge facing America in the year 2000, the party’s documents said, was to “prevent the abuse of our immense power.” “Previous generations have protected America through many trials,” it said. And it even quoted the then-presidential candidate Bush as saying, “The reserve of true strength and the humility of true greatness.” Even Bush’s staunchest supporters of his foreign policy did not say that this was a display of true greatness.

It is considered more like the tyranny of a lost greatness. The words "one emperor" and "one axis" are now like a rerun of an old movie.

Bush's downfall as president was not due to his broken promises or failed to achieve his goals. Not all politicians break promises. No one has ever achieved the lofty goals they promised during the campaign. Bush completely abandoned the promises and goals that got him elected and embraced the opposite. And he failed to make them happen.

In 2000, Bush criticized his predecessor for going to war without an “exit strategy.” In 2008, Bush himself left his successor with no way out of a war that had been going on for far longer than the United States had fought in World War II. Bush was elected president on a promise not to fight “nation-building wars” without an immediate military response. He then immediately promised to bring democracy to the entire Middle East and, while promising to save Iraq, ended up destroying it.

Bush, until he had to leave the stage, was still claiming that Iraq had been defeated. He said that intelligence reports before the war had shown that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He later acknowledged that the intelligence reports were false, but said that he acted in good faith based on the intelligence. Who would believe that? What matters is that there were WMD. Whether he believed they existed or not is not important. He justified the war by claiming that the war was justified. The man who started the war was the one who got the wrong information.

How do we explain to the families of those who died in the war why this war has continued for so long when we say that it was fought for the sake of the people?

The recent recession has come as a shock to many. It's good that they knew about it earlier. But one of them has been in charge for the past eight years. And that one man has been telling us how well the country has been doing for the past eight years. Many people thought the government and the citizens were borrowing money, but they didn't care. That one man has managed to run a record budget surplus. That one man has broken the Reagan model and lectured us about the burden of government. And that one man has increased government intervention in the economy by the most since President Roosevelt. He has taken over the banks and bailed out the auto industry. In short, the Bush presidency has completely discredited democracy.

Ref: Time; 12-1-2009 Michael Kinsley à 8 years later essay