It is no secret to me that the administration of George W. Bush committed some truly horrific acts. I never have been a fan of when people use the term "un-American," since that conveys images of rednecks with bumper stickers reading "Love It Or Leave it" and other such things, although that probably sounds like I am relying on stereotypes of my own.
That said, I believe that the administration of George W. Bush, which had eight long years in office, was the epitome of what "un-American" should suggest. From the biggest national security failure in American history, to cynically using that tragedy to push forward a very narrow, elitist agenda that seemed to be all about money and access to greater power (likely to make more money for certain elites), the Bush administration was a disaster, a tragedy for the nation.
No matter how bad Obama was, or how bad future administrations might be, there is a good chance that we will not see a worse administration for the country than that of George W. Bush. I mean, seriously, how much worse can you do, unless you are specifically trying to derail the entire nation?
Surely, there would be some neocons who would strongly disagree, and they would engage in the national amnesia that seems to have taken place since January 20, 2009, when so much of the country seemed to collectively awaken to find all of the problems that the country was facing, and conveniently blamed the black man in office for all of these problems.
However, those problems had been building up for quite some time over the course of several decades, and particularly in the previous eight years. Remember, the United States was a rich and powerful country before Bush took office, as the undisputed leading superpower of the world. It was a mostly respected nation, although a lot of people outside American borders kind of felt perplexed by how different this country was, in terms of environmental legislation, a lack of quality healthcare system for it's people, and a decided lack of other social benefits. Still, people felt that they could relate, since so much popular culture around the world came from within American borders.
So much changed in such a short period of time, and almost none of it for the better. Of course, the most famous episode was that the United States was attacked. Right after the attacks, Americans enjoyed so much sympathy from around the world at that point, that it was hard to imagine that the tensions that had existed between the United States and other countries had ever been serious.
But within months, the tensions were all the greater, because the Bush regime pursued an unjustifiable war of aggression against Iraq, and rather deceitfully linked the 9/11 attacks with Saddam Hussein, without ever outright implying that Saddam's Iraq was behind the attacks. Which is to say, Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with September 11th, and the charges of an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction were simply greatly exaggerated, if not outright fabricated. But they pursued the war, and eventually got the war that they wanted. We have been paying the price ever since.
Yet, that was just the tip of the iceberg, really.
The Bush administration used the tragedy of September 11th as a springboard for all sorts of other things, including increased government surveillance, the use of methods of torture for interrogation, the opening of de facto concentration camps where detainees were held indefinitely, without any hope for a trial. There were increased security measures that often went much too far, and made traveling more complicated and annoying, and a no fly list program was created and expanded.
The attacks were also used to justify an increased military budget at a time when there was an absence of a truly strong national rival, since the highly abstract and never ending "Global War on Terror" persisted, and would persist forever, essentially.
Corporations had been given a green pass, and the unspoken but clear message was that anything goes in pursuit of the almighty dollar. Corporate scandals abounded, and yet, we probably were not even given nearly as full of a picture as we should have been, given the convenient prevalence of secrecy, which was an unfortunate favorite of the Bush regime.
The economy was sagging and prospects truly unfavorable for most of the Bush years, and the height of all of this ineptitude, of course, was the global financial crisis of 2008. But Bush once again forced through another major act through Congress, and the bailout has remained controversial ever since, saving banking institutions that were deemed "too big to fail." This big bailout added yet more to the national debt, which the Bush administration also added quite a lot to.
Of course, who could overlook the staggering increase in social inequality, as the rich got richer and the poor got poorer?
And let us not forget the failed response to Hurricane Katrina.
So, while the country was more or less in relative good standing, to a nation hated and feared by many, and not fully trusted even among friends. One of the biggest points of contention was how such a country could elect such an administration not once, but twice (okay, he really did not win the first election, yet he got in, and he definitely won the second election anyway, right?).
What a disaster, and we have not even fully recovered yet. Unfortunately, President Obama has signaled that many of the excesses and unfortunate trends that the Bush administration championed will continue indefinitely, which is perhaps the biggest crime, and it happens to seemingly add legitimacy to the methods and thinking of the Bush administration.
Lest we forget, this was not a presidency to follow in any manner, Below is a link to an article that should remind us of that, and I recommend checking it out:
Here are 50 despicable things George W. Bush did before and after 9/11 Steven Rosenfeld for Alternet, 20 OCT 2015:
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