I just finished watching Frost/Nixon the excellent Ron Howard movie relating the story of the Nixon interviews conducted by David Frost which led to the breakdown of Richard Nixon on tape.
I can’t stop thinking of a similar interview of George W. Bush. Do you imagine how interesting it would be to have Bush explain what happened during his presidency in his own words without previous knowledge of the questions asked?
Richard Nixon has always been considered the black sheep of American presidents, as a result of his catastrophic management of the Vietnam war he inherited and his involvement in cover up operations: the watergate scandal, but most of all because he got caught.
Nixon is to this day the only American president to resign from office.
George W. Bush, got elected twice, finished his second mandate without any serious threat of impeachment nor official demands of resignation, and no one officially came after him despite his very honorable record (not exhaustive list):
• A disputed election (allegedly stolen) against Al Gore
• 9/11 and its controversial official account (to remain politically correct)
• War on Afghanistan in order to arrest Osama Ben Laden (never got caught).
• Unfounded WMDs allegations against Iraq and Saddam Hussein regime.
• Lies and false evidence presented to the entire world at the Security council in order to push for a war on Iraq.
• Unilateral preventive war on Iraq causing +150.000 civil deaths since 2003, a civil war and an unprecedented wave of terrorism.
• Guantanamo illegal prison/ secret CIA prisons / Torture practices
• Abu Gharib and the likes of the scandals
• Major global economic crisis that’s bringing the world to its knees
• And to finish off his mandate on the bright side, he strongly backed up the war on Gaza. The truce was broken by Israel on election day, before unilaterally stopping the aggression hours before the end of Bush's mandate. just coincidence for sure.
To me, and to many others, George W. Bush is one of the most dangerous individuals in the history of humankind.
During his mandates, we witnessed major global changes that are shaping our lives: He and his administration are responsible for the birth of an era, the terror and fear era.
I. The terror era More than the record I am citing above, what highlights W’s era is the birth of terrorism as a global phenomenon. Just think about it:
As of the 90s, terrorism was local. It was linked to small groups here and there. A few attacks have been conducted against US interests in the world. Among them the Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, the USS Cole attacks and two attacks in Saudi Arabia.
After the arrival of George W. Bush to the US presidency, terrorism became global. It started with the 9/11 attacks and then spread everywhere in the world under the Al Qaida banner.
Al Qaida is presented to the common joe as a multinational of terror, an organization structured as a global company with different levels of command and responsibilities, centralized and represented everywhere in the world.
II. The fear era Terrorism became the new favorite word of politicians and journalists alike. I like to see the summary of interviews made by Bush, Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Giuliani and the likes who seem to particularly appreciate words like 9/11, terror, terrorists, axis of evil etc.
Quickly, a growing sentiment of Islamophobia stroke. Racial profiling against tanned, brown and hairy people who carry non Christian names similar to the names of the 19 alleged hijackers of 9/11.
The direct result was reverse racism, the Muslim world soon started the cocooning process: people started to become more and more radicalized, the masses started to reject the “other civilization” and the real clash of civilizations initially stated by Samuel P. Huntington started.
This reaction is apparently a normal behavior as explained by Amin Maalouf in his brilliant essay “In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong”: When one component of your identity is threatened, it becomes the most important to you, your identifier.
The outcome was a rising fear from both sides and growing hate sentiments. As in every vicious circle escalation is the key word, and as in all kinds of escalations, there is no room for dialogue, no room for salvation.
Just take a look at the number of terrorist attacks between 2000 and 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Number_of_Terrorist_Incidents.pngThat is the main legacy of the George W. Bush era. A legacy we should all hold him and his administration accountable for.
Now, he is out of office, journalists are asking whether he is the worse president in the history of the United Stated of America. Controversy, manipulation and lies are the words that come to mind when talking about George W. Bush.
Will we ever know the truth about what happened these past 8 years in the oval office? Will he ever be judged on his wrongdoings ?
Will there be another Frost ? or another Kenneth Starr, this time interested in serious issues rather than trying to impeach a president for a sex scandal?
Time will tell
A.
