ðHgeocities.com/Tokyo/Courtyard/9450/worstpresident.htmlgeocities.com/Tokyo/Courtyard/9450/worstpresident.htmldelayedx±ÕJÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÈ°µáðDOKtext/html€š &ðDÿÿÿÿb‰.HTue, 13 Apr 2004 01:25:17 GMT}+Mozilla/4.5 (compatible; HTTrack 3.0x; Windows 98)en, * ±ÕJðD Untitled Subject: Worst president in history? The following appeared in the Durham, NC local paper as a letter to the editor.
Article is in Italics. My response is in normal type.
Liberals claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war. They complain about his prosecution of it. One liberal recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S. history. Let's clear up one point: We didn't start the war on terror. Try to remember, it was started by terrorists BEFORE 9/11. Let's look at the "worst" president and mismanagement claims.

1- The War on Terror in many respects is in a direct response to past American actions. While we, as a nation have corrected and acknowledged the faults of the past, they continue to haunt us to this day, and our imperialistic and hegemonic foreign policy towards the Middle East is what many people, from Noam Chomsky, to the Ayatollah Khomeini are citing as the cause of these terrorist attacks of 09/11/2001. Regardless of our perception of our own actions, we must consider the views of this extreme minority of people within the Middle East, and their take on our actions that have spurred them to carry out the atrocious attacks against this great nation. Even if their perceptions of our foreign policy towards the Middle East are incorrect, the fact is that they hold those views and unfortunately they use it as justification for the murder of innocent American citizens.
2- The facts here are that George W Bush’s failures as a “President” go MUCH farther than just the War on Terrorism. Look to such wonderful policies such as his Clear Skies Initiative, No Child Left Behind, The USA PATRIOT act, The National Security< Doctrine of 2002, The 2003 Energy Bill, the Dividend Income Tax Cuts, The Social Security Reform of 2003, The Immigration Reform of 2003, the Constitutional Amendment to define marriage, the withdrawl of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the numerous cuts to vital education and social programs, the bigoted and non-qualified appointments to the Judicial Appellate Court, the refusal to sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the refusal to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the refusal to sign the Kyoto Accord, the refusal to fully ratify the Chemical Weapons Treaty, the refusal to sign the Bangkok treaty establishing South East Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zones, the refusal to sign the Ottawa Accord on landmines, the disregard for international law, numerous conflicts of interests, and the fact that he managed to choke on a pretzel, among numerous other failures all amount to a complete mockery for American Democracy.
3- A large number of the arguments presented towards democratic presidents in a time of war are entirely non-responsive to the issue at hand of the Bush Administration. So what if we had democrats in office when America has gone into war in the past? The war is not the only measure by which Bush is failing, and the facts of history do nothing to disprove the failures of Bush’s social programs as well as his damage to American international relations. In late 2003, the BBC conducted a poll to determine who the rest of the world felt was the #1 threat to global security. There was a tie at the top of the list. Sharing the lead was the despotic ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and the President of the United States, George W. Bush. Go figure.

FDR led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.

1- If anybody wants to tell me that it was alright for any president, regardless of party to stand idly by and watch the greatest genocide in history to occur, and to see all of America’s European allies face near certain defeat, then I will laugh in their face. World War II was an event in world history that transcends partisan lines.
2- The facts are that Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. The United States declared war on Germany on December 12. It is clear who the aggressor is in this instance.
3- World War II was not instigated by any political party in the United States. Germany, Japan and the rest of the Axis nations posed a real and immediate threat to World Peace and the lives of millions of innocent civilians all over the world.

Truman finished that war and started one in Korea, North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,333 per year.

1- Great. Truman was a democrat. So what? Historical accounts will depict Harry as somebody who did not wish to instigate a shooting war on the Korean Peninsula. Harry had seen the horrors of a World War, and saw the nuclear world as a world in which the atrocities of war can be multiplied a hundred times over. Truman favored and perused diplomatic means to contain communism for quite some time, that is until the staunchly conservative Joint Chiefs of Staff, lead by Gen. Douglas Macarthur urged a full out war to contain the spread of Communism.
2- The Truman administration did not intend to go to war until vital American interests were threatened within the region. One tends to forget that during this time, the Pacific Rim was still politically unstable after World War II. Any spark was felt to ignite an all out war once again. On January 12, 1950 Secretary of State Dean Acheson told the National Press Club that America's Pacific defense perimeter was made up of the Aleutians, Ryukyu, Japan, and the Philippines implying that America would not fight over Korea, and that the country was outside of American concern in the Pacific. War in Korea was not seen as urgent by the Truman administration. It was only after Gen. Macarthur pushed Truman into war that we committed troops to saving innocent Korean lives from a direct offensive invasion.
3- Even the staunchly conservative Joint Chiefs of Staff did not agree with Macarthur’s war in Korea. "The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time and with the wrong enemy." General Omar Bradley on General Macarthur’s proposal to carry the Korean Conflict 1951

John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year.

1- JFK only committed US troops to Vietnam during his 1,000 day tenure as President as “Advisors”. During this time, he ignored the urges of his administration to broaden the role in Vietnam. His motivation was to ensure the peaceful maintenance of South Vietnam sovereignty and peace in the region.
2- JFK did not intend for the troops to become combat troops. In 1963, Kennedy's special counselor, Arthur M. Schlesinger said "Kennedy was still playing out his public hand while secretly wondering how to get out." This gives us a clear view that he in fact intended to withdraw regardless of victory, by mid-1965. President Kennedy supported a full military withdrawal from Vietnam, but he said "if he announced a withdrawal of American military personnel from Vietnam before the 1964 election, there would be a wild conservative outcry against returning him to the Presidency for a second term." Further he said in a private comment to the White House aide, Kenneth O'Donnell, "In 1965, I'll become one of the most unpopular Presidents in history. I'll be damned everywhere as a Communist appeaser. But I don't care. If I tried to pull out completely now from Vietnam, we would have another Joe McCarthy scare on our hands, but I can do it after I'm reelected. So we had better make damned sure that I am reelected." It was very important for President Kennedy not to let the public know his withdrawal plans. In a very confusing press conference on 14 November 1963, he said the Honolulu conference that was to come, would concentrate on "how we can intensify the struggle, how we can bring Americans out of there. Now that is our object, to bring Americans out of there."
3- LBJ’s movements towards war were not supported by the Kennedy Family. In 1965, RFK publicly denounced LBJ’s policies towards Vietnam, stating that it did not comply with JFK’s ideas and plans.
4- Let us not forget that the worst days of the Vietnam War (The Tet Offensive, Operation Linebacker, ect) were during the Republican Nixon Administration.

Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent, Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.
1- Clinton did not need UN approval for the war in Bosnia, because in 1993, the UN transferred control of the situation over NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization contains a number of European nations…including France.
2- Once again, to claim that the United States should stand idly by while 200,000 innocent people die is completely absurd. A policy of intervention should be followed whenever genocide is committed.
3- To those who will say that this action justifies the action in Iraq in 2003-2004, remember the following things:
a. There has never been a single person who has said that the lives saved by US action in Iraq are a good thing. However what must be understood is that 1- The US went into Iraq citing in the 2003 State of the Union that Terrorism/WMD is a reason to go to war in 18 Paragraphs, while humanitarian reasons are only cited in two Read it for yourself (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-23.html)
b- It was only AFTER the failure to find WMD and the realization that terrorists were not unique to Iraq that the Bush Administration declared humanitarian reasons as being more important. (A Lexis-Nexis search conducted just three minutes ago show that the stressing of humanitarian intervention has increased since the criticisms of no WMD were first voiced in summer of 2003. Go figure.)
c- Even if humanitarian reasons are enough of a reason to go to war, the fact remains that Bush and his cronies mislead the public without acknowledging their error in judgment. At the very least, this fact tarnishes the reasons for war, if not nullifies them entirely.
d- Saddam was a horrible leader, and the people of Iraq need to be free. However the war has needlessly killed over 8,000 civilians in Iraq, and has ensured that political stability will never be achieved. The June 30 Deadline is looking like a due date for my essay in AP English…it just isn’t going to happen. Iraq’s unique political climate with the fighting ethnic groups will ensure that Democracy as America is touting will never be achieved, and will only spur more problems.
e- US and UN Sanctions on Iraq for Humanitarian Aid have killed over 567,000 CHILDREN in just four years. The number of adults and the number of further children deaths are unknown, but are widely suspected to be over Three million deaths. That is more than five times even the highest number of deaths in Iraq due to Saddam.
4- Clinton did take action towards Osama during the 90’s. He instigated a global search to bring him to justice and fired cruise missiles into Sudan and other African strongholds three times. Taking into consideration the intelligence during this time, it was the only logical choice, otherwise with the scattered intelligence we would have had to invade 12 foreign nations to bring Bin Laden to justice…something that not even Bush has managed to do.

In the two years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Lybia, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. We lost 600 soldiers. Bush did all this abroad while not allowing another terrorist attack at home. Worst president in history? Come on!

1- Bush has significantly damaged the Taliban. But at what cost? 30,000 civilian lives, 104 American military lives, and billions of dollars. All of this only to find that the Taliban is regrouping in Afghanistan, and is orchestrating a number of attacks against the Hamid Karzai administration.
2- So I suppose that Bush has done such a great job against Al Queda that they no longer have the ability to attack America…Oops, I guess that the numerous warnings by the CIA, NSA, Homeland Security Association, and other international intelligence associations that Al Qaeda not only orchestrated the bus bombings in Spain, but also are planning another big attack against America.
3- Show me the AMERICAN inspectors on the ground within the past year in Iran, Libya and North Korea, and I will give you a hundred dollars. The inspectors on the ground now are from the IAEA – The International Atomic Energy Association, an independent, multi-lateral, and international association. They are on the ground due to UN and regional efforts, not by US Pressure. In fact, the American influence is a key reason why they were kicked out in the first place.
4- Once again, looking at only the war is a stupid thing to do. Let’s talk about Bush’s environmental or economic policy for a moment. The last time that I checked, a president was more than a war monger.

The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking, but... It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51 day operation. We've been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records. It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Teddy Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!! Our military is GREAT & so is the Commander In Chief!

1- Great, I can grant you all of these arguments and they don’t mean a thing. So what if a few instances with democrats are supposedly shorter than this war? How does that make Bush any better, just because people in the past have taken a while to do things? There is no reason that any of those facts have any retroactive benefit to Bush.
2- Hmm, 51 days, or a conflict that is deteriorating as we speak that has lasted over a year?...Hmm, it seems as though Bush’s declaration on board the USS Abe Lincoln was a bit premature. Fajulla and the current conflicts show that we are far from taking the nation completely.
3- Whoa, so we found chemical weapons? I guess I missed something with my AP Newsfeed, daily reads of over a dozen news sites, routine searches of Lexis-Nexis, and having the TV on constantly. The last time that I checked, every time we have thought we found anything with chemical weapons turned out to be a multi-use machine such as an anthrax distiller/baby food maker in a baby food factory, or shells that are hollowed out to place high explosives OR possible chem/bio weapons. Show me the VX Gas, and show me the Anthrax, and I vote Bush in 2004.
4- Hey, I have NEVER claimed any responsibility for Teddy Kennedy. He is on his own here.

Underview:
1- None of those reasons have any sort of positive impact for Bush. If anything, they have only solidified my opinions of him and have hurt his case.
2- ALL of these statistics/numbers/historical facts are backed by highly reputable cites. I would include a footnote, but I am lazy. They are available upon request. If you doubt me, then by all means do a simple google or Lexis-Nexis search. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
3- I do not associate myself with the Democratic party. I am a staunch left-wing political independent. I only offer these facts to refute the warrentless claims and prove that history does not justify Bush’s actions. Even though I am not a democrat, my vote in November goes to ABB- Anybody But Bush.
4- If you wish to continue this arcane discussion about politics, then feel free to contact me and arrange a meeting with yourself, or anybody else you wish to include. You may call me at 316-259-3426, e-mail me at zbrown@cox.net, instant message me on AOL Instant Messenger at zbrown412 come to my house at 4316 Dover, Wichita KS, 67216, or find me at school.
5- Finally, remember this. I love my country when it is right. I love my country so much, that I am willing to set it right when it is wrong.