George Bush the Endless Spiral of Failure or the New Hope of America

On election night in 2000 Al Gore celebrated with passion as the networks across the board announced that he was the winner of the election. However as time dragged on the networks were forced to change their claims, after all of the votes were tallied it looked as though there was now a different president, George Bush. George Bush commanded the nation with the title of hero. He led the nation to war after World Trade Centers in New York City and The Pentagon in Arlington Virginia were attacked. These events however did not make him into an excellent president. His domestic and foreign policies eventually earned him the title of one of the worst presidents ever. Through his cunning he was able to trick the nation into attacking a sovereign nation, Iraq. Now as the stock markets plummet to new lows we look to the candidate’s in this years election to give us a fresh face from the Halloween mask that we and the rest of the world were looking at for the past eight years. The next four years will be the most important and challenging and it is up to the people to decided who will bear the struggles of putting this nation back together piece by piece.

Once the election was called then President-elect George Bush got to work at naming his cabinet of high profile officials. His secretary of state broke down barriers within the U.S. military, as he is the first African American to make it to one of the highest ranks in the United States military, this person is Colin Powell. His defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was serving in the White House since the Nixon administration.

George Walker Bush was sworn in as President in the first month of 2001. In just nine months time he would have his first test as President of the United States. On September 11, 2001 four domestic flights were hijacked in mid and flown toward major U.S. cities. The first two attacked New York City, the third attacked the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Bush worked quickly alienating the United States from the rest of the world when he gave all other countries an ultimatum “either you’re with us or you’re against us.” Most nations joined Bush in his quest to eradicate terrorism. The first country on his list was Afghanistan; the country’s government the Taliban was solely responsible for harboring the terrorist who orchestrated the attacks on September 11^th Osama bin Laden. Afghanistan was easy to fall and al Qaeda fled into the mountains to fight another day. This plan of action was probably the only good foreign policy decision. Both democrats and republicans stress for the need to focus on Afghanistan as the center of America’s war on terrorism.

The threat of Iraq was no real threat at all, Saddam had no connection to al-Qaeda, nor did he even like al-Qaeda. They viewed each other as enemies, which means they were not plotting on how to destroy America behind doors. In HUBRIS a book written by Michael Isikoff they speak of an intentional plot to destroy Saddam Hussein by President George Bush when he was speaking with Richard Clark they have him quoted as responding to news that Saddam was not colluding with al-Qaeda, “I know, I know, but… see if Saddam was involved. Just look.” The “very forceful” tone that they have Bush pegged as expressing shows that he wants Saddam Hussein out of power no matter what.

To answer the threat of terrorism the Bush Doctrine was created. This document is the base for U.S. foreign policy. The Bush Doctrine states that its main goal is to “Prevent our enemies from threatening us, our allies, and our friends with weapons of

mass destruction (WMD)”. All plans and strategies adapt, such as in the case of Iraq. What started out as a strong plan of invasion and eradication turned into occupation, the U.S. now facing rebels from every side decided to deal with this problem in a peaceful way. The U.S. negotiated with the rebels with bags of cash in hand. Even in Iraq some are calling for the U.S. to negotiate with al Qaeda the sworn enemy that attacked the U.S. on September 11^th. The Bush Doctrine is the document that put into words what was being put to action in the realms of U.S. foreign policy.

The threat of terrorism put the bush administration into a curious position as the ominous word of torture leaked its way out of the heavily fortified prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The mistreatment of prisoners and the use of “torture” by the government was a shock to the public. The Bush administration quickly denounced what was being done at Guantanamo as torture but as enhanced interrogation techniques, this is a familiarity with the Bush administration as they also referred to their withdrawal of Iraq as “Time Horizons.”

A crucial and defining piece of legislation, The PATRIOT Act that was signed into law on October 26, 2001. PATRIOT is an acronym which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism as its name implies the PATRIOT act was meant to secure the United States. A critique of this piece of legislature would be put in place in a vulnerable time it takes away from our liberties, a direct threat to the constitution. It allows unwarranted search and seizures. The act would turn out to be a big failure, not favorable with ordinary Americans who are opposed with signing away their freedom.

One of the defining moments of the Bush administration is the mishandling of hurricane Katrina. Katrina a category five hurricane made landfall on August 29, 2005 as a category five hurricane. Katrina caused about 100 billion dollars in damages. The government to a long time to respond to this disaster which prompted people to question who the government is really for. In the end the governments inaction caused 2000 people to lose their lives.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a six hundred page law that requires that school districts have standardized tests put in place in math, reading and science by 2008 school year. No child left behind can be broken down into ten titles. The first title states that all schools need to have standardized tests in place for math, reading and science. The second title is programmed to reducing class sizes. The third title is dedicated to reaching english language proficiency for immigrants. Title four provides money for programs that help drug awareness, the most important aspect of title four however is that it allows students to transfer to different schools if they fell victim to a crime at their school. Title five provides grants of twenty-six programs for schools. Title six provides the funding necessary to achieve title one. Title seven provides money for all people native to the United States (Native Americans, Hawaiians, Alaskans). Title eight continues funding for Impact Aid. Title nine continues to grant the use of school facilities to certain youth groups, it also provides the names and phone numbers of graduates to military recruiters unless the parents forbid it. Title ten makes changes to supplies that are dealt to homeless children.

Even though it may sound as though there is nothing wrong with No Child Left Behind the truth is that the funding for the act was lacking. President Bush never included an acceptable increase to funding for education when he presented No Child Left Behind Congress. The law is also called unconstitutional by the National Conference of State Legislature who claimed that No Child Left Behind was in clear violation of the constitution, which states in amendment ten “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. Their basic argument was that it is the states job to worry about education not the federal government. Neal P. McCluskey the author of the book entitled Feds in the Classroom claims that No Child Left Behind is “rich in rhetorical promise but fundamentally bankrupt”, he then points out that “the system invariably works for the people who run and work in it, not the children and parents who it’s supposed to serve.” Choice is the best answer to this complex equation, the choice to chose one school over another, not to be restrained to one particular school.

As of early summer of 2008 the funding for No Child Left Behind just got a little bit less unlikely with the fall of the stock market. It started with the failures of two giant stock holder corporations. Both were started by the United States government Fannie Mae started out as part of the “New Deal” in 1938. The other Freddie Mac was started to give Fannie Mae some competition in 1970. Then other firms started failing such as AIG, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs. Then banks started failing Wachovia, Washington Mutual and now Citigroup. The only answer to these problems seemed to be dumping money into them. This is when the 700 dollar billion bailout was proposed, it allocates money to saving these firms. The problem is that the money is being misused so even though U.S. has already lent money to Citigroup the company is still having trouble because of it misusing that money for golden parachutes and acquiring failing companies such as Wachovia. Now there are cries to bailout everyone, the auto industry, the airline industry, however none are taking responsibility themselves. Each CEO makes millions each year lives in multi-million dollar homes, and when they travel they take their million dollar jets to far of locals to sleep in tens of thousands a night rooms. So I guess one can ask. Why do they need a bailout?

President-elect Barack Obama has an immense task at hand. A broken economy, two wars, a failing educational system is quite a lot for one to chew let alone swallow. However high hopes for Barack and his promise of change are what the American people have. Barack has already named his treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and an apparent secretary of state Hillary Clinton. The road ahead is long and full of potholes, but with the right car the U.S. should make it out safely.

Please comment and tell me what you think about George Bush and his presidency.