“Georgie” Bush’s Legacy

© Dr. Gary D. Lemmons, October 22, 2006

I’m sorry, but “Georgie” Bush has “bumbled” the Iraqi war… about as badly as Lyndon Johnson did the one so many of my generation remember…not for invading Iraq and disposing of Saddam, but for listening to Donald Rumsfeld.  The only thing Rumsfeld got right was the “lean, mean, fighting machine invasion force.”  It was tremendously effective in the combat phase of the war.  Then came the occupation and Rumsfeld was “lost ball in high grass”…too few troops to do the job, inadequate equipment in the initial phases of the task, and arrogance equaled only to Robert McNamara of another era.  As a consequence of our lack of sufficient force, the insurgents were able to organize and become an issue and the Islamist fanatic terrorists from other parts of the region were able to enter Iraq. Now, our troops are paying the price.

Because of his embracing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s incompetent handling of the Iraqi war, “Georgie” Bush looks like a chagrined husband who has just learned that he is the victim of spousal unfaithfulness with respect to his ability to handle the latest challenge from North Korea.  It is now clear that our little buddies on the northern half of the Korean peninsula have created and tested (evidently successfully) a nuclear device.  In response, our chief executive, who, sometime back, asserted with typical Bush swagger:

We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea. We will not give into blackmail. We will not settle for anything less than the complete, verifiable, and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.,

has settled for a watered-down set of sanctions by that powerful pontificator of political policy…the United Nations.  What a joke!

In typical Bush fashion, the President has reinvented himself.  He has changed the focus.  Now he is telling North Korea that should they put nuclear weaponry or even nuclear resources into the hand of terrorists, we will hold them accountable.  Again, what a joke!

The fact of the matter is that because of our Iraqi adventure, we do not have sufficient conventional forces to deal with the Korean situation.  Only our tactical nuclear weaponry serves as whatever little deterrence that our Korean adversaries recognize.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang (the capital of North Korea) was preparing for still another test of a nuclear device until their “big brother,” the Chinese intervened.

As for Iraq, should we cut and run…not a chance, but the time has come to deal with the situation.  Since we are too “humane” to destroy the Iraqi population structure that “enables” the insurgents and/or the Islamist terrorists, we must demand that the Iraqi government rise to the occasion.  The best way to do this may be a form of “Iraqization,” similar to Nixon’s “Vietnamization”.  In other words, we develop a schedule for the Iraqi forces to assume certain tasks.  When those times arrive, we turn those tasks over to the Iraqi…ready or not.  This “schedule” could be kept close to the vest…put Karl Rove in charge of it’s security…thus not making it a public schedule of departure.

“Georgie” is not going to do this.  He has already embraced the Rumsfeld philosophy.  That coupled with the fact that he has been the most “liberal” spending President in history (even discounting the war), a member of the “inept” President’s club with respect to protecting our borders, and one of the strongest advocates for “bigger” government and the “infringement” upon individual liberties since the Federalists of the John Adams era, I suspect that his legacy will not be treated kindly.