George Bush has said his biggest regret is the failure to get it right over whether Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
He didn’t say whether he would have invaded Iraq otherwise. Do you think this mistake has fundamentally changed the course of recent history? He has said, “I will leave the presidency with my head held high.” Is it enough to admit that he got it wrong?
What caused the Mumbai terror attacks? Explanations are being sought in the 60-year Kashmiri conflict, the relative poverty of India’s Muslims, and tensions between Muslims and Hindus. But how does any of this justify the killing of more than two hundred people? David Aaronovitch argues in The Times newspaper that the real cause is an “ideology of hatred”, grown out of the failure of society in Punjab, the failing state that most of the attackers came from.
Is there any evidence that the Olympics encourages more people to play sport and gives the economy a lift ? The London 2012 bid was sold to the British public with promises of far-reaching social and economic benefit. But now it’s emerged that, in 2002, then Prime Minister Tony Blair signed off a document which said the Olympics would do little more than boost morale. But then, what’s wrong with hosting one of the world’s biggest parties? Isn’t it something every self-respecting city should aspire to?
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Re: Bush, did he get it wrong…or did he and Blair pressure the intelligence community into writing the reports they needed to justify the invasion. Certainly at the British end there is strong evidence of the latter.
Re: Ideology of hatred, if Aaronovitch makes a mistake it’s in limiting his theory to the Punjab. While some terrorism in the world today is inspired by some cause or another, all too much is just a generalised hatred of the west.
Re: Olympics. Parties and a morale boost are a good thing. Did we really expect anything else?
WMD~
Bush will spend the rest of his life trying to rewrite history and maintaining that the strategic occupation of Iraq was something other than just that. The sad part is that he will always have fools to believe him.
Terror~
If only the “ideology of hatred” were limited to just the Punjab…
Olympics~
Anything that helps people forget the insanity of their world for a few days can’t be all bad.
Bush should get it right when he and his people are tried before an International Court for Crimes Against Humanity.
Re: George Bush
Is it enough to admit that he got it wrong?
For myself; yes.
For many; it will not be. He’s the president and that means that he must accept 100% of the blame; even if he is not 100% responsible or was truly doing what he thought was best for the US.
George Bush has said his biggest regret is the failure to get it right
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——– No kiddin. Long line of tin horned dictators lamenting the same.
To be fair, things already in a mess when he took office. He just takes it to a new level.
American baby boomers have blown 16 consecutive years of their moment in power. The best Obama can do is pick up the pieces for sorting so future administrations can attempt to glue together.
I cannot help but feel really sorry for Bush these last couple of days. Two unfinished wars and a messy economy on his hands. Poor chap!
I liken Bush with an employee whose job is to save his employer money, but he sees it differently and acts differently until he puts his employer into his knees. Bush and probably his advisers too have had long slept on the wheel. Where is the vehicle and the occupants, leave alone the pedestrians and the rest of road users?
I agree with Roberto that “American baby boomers have blown 16 consecutive years of their moment in power. The best Obama can do is pick up the pieces for sorting so future administrations can attempt to glue together.”
However, it is not easy to glue pottery that has some pieces missing. I tried that with my plants’ pottery, but they continued to leak, and eventually I gave up and bought cheep ones because that was all I could afford to see my plants turn green again.
I am sure in Obama’s case, the right head is glued in the right body. His mission would probably be to do all things that will satisfy America 80% and the world 100%. The closer he and his advisers can get to this imaginary attainment the better for the world, and I am sure this is one way of eliminating these terror acts whether it is from an individual, a government or a cluster.
I liken Bush with an employee whose job is to save his employer money, but he sees it differently and acts differently until he puts his employer into his knees. Bush and probably his advisers too have had long slept on the wheels. Where is the vehicle and the occupants, leave alone the pedestrians and the rest of road users?
I agree with Roberto that “American baby boomers have blown 16 consecutive years of their moment in power. The best Obama can do is pick up the pieces for sorting so future administrations can attempt to glue together.”
However, it is not easy to glue pottery that has some pieces missing. I tried that with my plants’ pottery, but they continued to leak, and eventually I gave up and bought cheep ones because that was all I could afford to see my plants turn green again.
I am sure in Obama’s case, the right head is glued in the right body. His mission would probably be to do all things that will satisfy America 80% and the world 100%. The closer he and his advisers can get to this imaginary attainment the better for the world, and I am sure this is one way of eliminating these terror acts whether it is from an individual, a government or a cluster.
Aaronovitch is bang on:
a psychosis in search of a grievance, not an expression of an existing grievance
That is nice, he has a few regrets on his conduct in his time in office….
The damage that the Bush administration has done in the first crucial 8 years of this dangerous millennium is probably incalculable. Who can say what ‘regrets’ about this period will be voiced in 2050 when it becomes clear just how precious these 8 years were for getting all sorts of indispensable remedies to our many global (political/socio-economic) and planetary (environmental) ailments?
It may well be that these were the 8 years that broke the camel’s back. But Bush et al. won’t be around to mull over their regrets at that time.
I can think of only one personal parallel in history: the emperorship of Caligula; but at least the Romans did away with him. The Americans let Bush stay on for 4 years more, after he had shown his crass stupidity to the whole world.
It’s just a bit disingenuous of the President to regret the WMD fiasco, since it was his administration that fabricated the evidence that caused it. Stiil, as long as Saddam behaved as if he did have WMDs toppling him was justified.
I doubt if George Bush’s presidency has changed the course of history. People ascribe too much significance and power to one individual. The Muslim world would have been seething with hate for the West, and the non-Muslim world generally, even if Iraq and Afghanistan hadn’t happened (9/11?). Anti-Americanism was widespread before Bush and won’t vanish under Obama.
A more likely, & better, legacy of his time in office will be to change the course of American and Western foreign policy. No more humanitarian wars. No more liberal imperialism. No more use of ‘democracy’ as a pretext for invasion and occupation. An end to the folly of planting democracy where it can never grow. No more illusions about fighting wars on behalf of people who aren’t prepared to lift a finger on their own behalf. No more self-deception about Islam (’a religion of peace’ – ha!) and Muslims (’longing for freedom etc’). A Western foreign policy based on self-interest and a hard sense of reality, rather than one based on pleasing moral fantasies and a servile wish to promote the good of ‘the other’.