Harvey Wasserman: Bush The War Flop
Today marks four years that George W. Bush has been a complete flop as a “War President,” the worst Commander in Chief in US History.
On September 11, 2001, Bush’s incompetence -- at very least -- allowed Osama bin Laden’s attacks on America to happen. Imagine the howl from the bloviating right wing if those disasters had happened on Bill Clinton or Al Gore or John Kerry’s watch.
Since then, Bush’s four-year mismanagement of military operations has been every bit as incompetent, dishonorable and gratuitously destructive as his performance in New Orleans. One can only shudder at what comes next.
At a speech just before Katrina, Bush had the astonishing gall to compare his war leadership to that of Franklin Roosevelt. In fact, if Bush had been in office instead of Roosevelt in 1941, we’d all be speaking German and Japanese.
Lets do the math: On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, killing nearly as many Americans as bin Laden killed on 9/11/01. The Pacific fleet was crippled, and Japan appeared as unbeatable in Asia as did the Nazis in Europe.
Confined to a wheelchair, FDR miraculously rallied America’s “Arsenal of Democracy” for history’s most massive and effective counter-attack. He held together a very touchy alliance between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, staffed the American military machine with some of history’s great generals, and effectively turned the tide. By the time he died in April, 1945, Roosevelt had overseen history’s largest amphibious invasion, at Normandy. With that assault he began the definitive destruction of the real Axis of Evil. By August, the Japanese had surrendered, less than four years after their misbegotten attack.
Bush, of course, is busy trying to destroy one of FDR’s crowning domestic achievements, the Social Security System. But even that nearly pales before Bush’s catastrophic military command.
Bush’s attack on Iraq in response to 9/11 is the strategic and moral equivalent of attacking Brazil after Pearl Harbor. There were, Bush might reason, some Japanese nationals living in Brazil. And all that coffee…
But FDR built a military machine from scratch and used it effectively to defeat the Nazi devil. The US emerged from World War 2 as the best loved nation on earth.
Bush has taken history’s largest, most thoroughly over-funded military and run it into the ground. Like FEMA in New Orleans, he’s misused the armed forces to degrade the American soul at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and in the streets of Baghdad, where he worsens a hopeless, endless civil war. He’s also played bait-and-switch with thousands of American reserves and National Guard whose lives and health have been devastated.
And after four full years of Bushwahr, Osama bin Laden still runs free. By all accounts he is more powerful than ever, his terror network overflowing with recruits sent him by Bush’s arrogant incompetence.
...
From New Orleans to Baghdad, the US has never suffered from more delusional or less competent leadership.
...
In any case, this tragic four-year anniversary reminds us that George W. Bush reigns supreme as America’s ultimate military flop.
Read entire article at The Free Press
On September 11, 2001, Bush’s incompetence -- at very least -- allowed Osama bin Laden’s attacks on America to happen. Imagine the howl from the bloviating right wing if those disasters had happened on Bill Clinton or Al Gore or John Kerry’s watch.
Since then, Bush’s four-year mismanagement of military operations has been every bit as incompetent, dishonorable and gratuitously destructive as his performance in New Orleans. One can only shudder at what comes next.
At a speech just before Katrina, Bush had the astonishing gall to compare his war leadership to that of Franklin Roosevelt. In fact, if Bush had been in office instead of Roosevelt in 1941, we’d all be speaking German and Japanese.
Lets do the math: On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, killing nearly as many Americans as bin Laden killed on 9/11/01. The Pacific fleet was crippled, and Japan appeared as unbeatable in Asia as did the Nazis in Europe.
Confined to a wheelchair, FDR miraculously rallied America’s “Arsenal of Democracy” for history’s most massive and effective counter-attack. He held together a very touchy alliance between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, staffed the American military machine with some of history’s great generals, and effectively turned the tide. By the time he died in April, 1945, Roosevelt had overseen history’s largest amphibious invasion, at Normandy. With that assault he began the definitive destruction of the real Axis of Evil. By August, the Japanese had surrendered, less than four years after their misbegotten attack.
Bush, of course, is busy trying to destroy one of FDR’s crowning domestic achievements, the Social Security System. But even that nearly pales before Bush’s catastrophic military command.
Bush’s attack on Iraq in response to 9/11 is the strategic and moral equivalent of attacking Brazil after Pearl Harbor. There were, Bush might reason, some Japanese nationals living in Brazil. And all that coffee…
But FDR built a military machine from scratch and used it effectively to defeat the Nazi devil. The US emerged from World War 2 as the best loved nation on earth.
Bush has taken history’s largest, most thoroughly over-funded military and run it into the ground. Like FEMA in New Orleans, he’s misused the armed forces to degrade the American soul at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and in the streets of Baghdad, where he worsens a hopeless, endless civil war. He’s also played bait-and-switch with thousands of American reserves and National Guard whose lives and health have been devastated.
And after four full years of Bushwahr, Osama bin Laden still runs free. By all accounts he is more powerful than ever, his terror network overflowing with recruits sent him by Bush’s arrogant incompetence.
...
From New Orleans to Baghdad, the US has never suffered from more delusional or less competent leadership.
...
In any case, this tragic four-year anniversary reminds us that George W. Bush reigns supreme as America’s ultimate military flop.