The decision by President Bush to launch a preemptive invasion of Iraq was the biggest military misjudgment in the history of the American Presidency.
The decision by President Bush to show contempt for his commanders in not using enough troops was the single most catastrophic military decision by any commander in chief in the history of the Republic.
The decision by President Bush to not supply our troops with adequate body armor, protected vehicles, bandages and helmets and other essential equipment led to more preventable casualties among our troops than any other President in the history of the Republic.
The decision by President Bush to justify the use of torture and try to cover it up, was the single most morally mistaken action by any leader of the free world.
The decision by President Bush to put partisan Republican operatives in key positions of the Iraq Reconstruction was the most incompetent action in the history of the American programs.
The decision by President Bush to allow more than $10 billion of Iraq Reconstruction money to be stolen, lost, robbed, and wasted made this financially the single most corrupted program in the history of American Presidents.
The decision by President Bush to surround this war with unprecedented claims of unilateral presidential power to overrule or ignore laws, statutes, provisions of the Constitution and Bill of Rights was the single worst abuse of the idea of faithfully executing the law in the history of the American presidency.
The decisions by President Bush from the beginning of this war to this day, have done more preventable damage to the structure, readiness, deterrence and stability of the American military than any previous president in American history.
The decision of President Bush to treat Congress as a virtual vassal and not a co-equal branch of government in the conduct of this war was one of the most constitutionally disastrous decisions in the history of wartime Presidents.
The decision of President Bush to use this war as a partisan political attack strategy did more damage than every other American president combined in corrupting both the integrity of our democratic process, and the national unity, that previous presidents have sought to maintain, and this President deliberately sought to destroy.
He calls himself the Decider, as though he sits on a regal perch, above the rest of our people, our laws, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our allies, our Congress, our Courts and our commanders who he has disrespected more than any previous President in the history of the presidency.
He organizes his Party to attack war heroes because they warned against his policies, to demean generals because they warned against his war plan, to attack our NATO allies who were demeaned as Old Europe, even to blame the American people suggesting we are traumatized by the result of his catastrophe.
The President's decision to be the only American President since 1948 not to lead a genuine search for Middle East peace was catastrophic and allowed the Iraq conflagration to spread further and further across the entire region.
Middle East peace is a hard mission, but the decision of President Bush to refuse to even make the effort, has allowed the arc of chaos and death to widen without any American effort to appeal to the aspirations of the generation of young people in the Middle East and around the world.
The contempt for different opinion, the torture policies that led to Abu Ghraib and detention policies that led to Guantanamo, the arrogance of power and ignorance of foreign culture, the corruption of Reconstruction, the defamation of political opponents, the monarchical claim of unilateral power, these wrongs and more have led to the creation of more terrorists, more insurgents, more antagonism towards America than any other President in our history.
And now the President, having looked at the landscape of this disaster, has decided: keep doing the same things, only do more of them, and escalate. In his world our allies are wrong; our people are wrong; our Joints Chiefs of Staff are wrong; our elections were wrong; the Baker Hamilton bipartisan group was wrong; everyone is wrong except those who have been so wrong for four deadly years of this war.
Brent Budowsky is a regular columnist on thehill.com. He served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management.
You may say what you will about everything else,but there will never be peace in the Middle East. The fact that you bring up every President since 1948 has tried for peace only confirms my point. Again, there will never be peace in the Middle East!
by
larry booth (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 301 comments)
on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 7:41:36 PM
Well one thing is certain and this is very possibly. Bush's has a hidden agenda for an unruly Middle East. The old days of being unruly keep country's like the former Soviet Union, Korea and China from advancing threw out Europe. This has been a strong belief I've had even back when I was a child. I also have thought Bush don't truly want stability in Iraq as I previously mentioned in hopes of a total collapse so he and his crony's can pick at there black gold like vouchers. He has plenty of Americans willing to pat him on the back for his gallant efforts for trying to make a democratic society to cover his crime intentions. With all his political backing to do his dirty deeds it so far has gone well in his book. We may be seeing one of the best orchestrated crime going on right under our noses that had ever been put together. Without going onto all kinds of theory as to why Bush does what most of us dislike. Congress and the Senate need to stop him in his tracks regardless as to why it just not moral for them to turn there backs to these crimes. We never needed to attack Iraq to stop terrorism, what would be the point a free democratic Iraq has nothing to do with stopping terrorism now does it??? Terrorist would still exist and thrive even better in a democratic Iraq.
by
Fred F (1 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 361 comments)
on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 10:22:58 PM
There are many, many, many more deaths coming. Iraq is an opening bloody diversion in the Middle East. As the army attacks Iraq, the US gov't erodes rights at home by suspending habeas corpus, stealing private lands, banning books like "America Deceived" from Amazon, rigging elections, conducting warrantless wiretaps and starting 2 illegal wars based on lies. Soon, another US false-flag operation will occur (sinking of an Aircraft Carrier) and the US will invade Iran, (on behalf of Israel).
Final link (before Google Books bends to gov't demands and censors the title):
America Deceived (book)
by
Lorring II (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 86 comments)
on Wednesday, December 27, 2006 at 8:10:54 AM
thanks for a well-written article. But you left out Katrina! Not the hurricane, but the decision to respond in the manner that he did.
Although, the true disaster is knowing that the American public is so unaware of his shortcomings that they inflicted him on us for 4 years longer than necessary.
by
EWalk (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 2:00:41 PM
4 comments
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