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1/20/2009
Burri writes of a man of dignity, honor and courage

In his Pulitzer-prize winning book "Profiles in Courage," John F. Kennedy wrote about eight American politicians who, in the words of this description: "crossed party lines and/or defied the public opinion of their constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of their actions."

Somebody tell me how President George W. Bush doesn't fit that description.

Ah, yes, I hear the laughter. I see you smirking. After all, Bush was the worst president of the 20th and 21st centuries combined. Maybe the worst ever!

Hey, I've had my problems with the Bush administration. I've had my complaints. Those complaints do not, however, include a lack of dignity; a lack of honor; or a lack of courage.

If nothing else, Bush has been willing to sacrifice himself to public opinion, in order to do what he thought was right.

Post 9/11, Bush was almost universally loved. By 2004, his approval ratings had sunk to 50% or lower. As the wars dragged on, casualties piled up with no apparent progress – no milestones reached, no goals achieved – his ratings got worse. By 2006, they were under 40%. By 2008, under 30%. He didn't waver.

Bush's insistence that we stay the course cost his domestic agenda. There would be no entitlement reform; no permanence for his tax cuts. His dwindling political capital meant dwindling influence and support, even from his own side.

By 2006, even I was questioning:

I have my doubts. This month’s toll on U.S. troops is the highest in two years…those are real people with families, who are in harm’s way because of policies that I supported, and for the most part still do.

I can’t help wondering: when is this going to stop? Should we have done something different? Should we start doing something different?

I was writing about Iraq, but I might have been writing about Bush himself: Should he have done something different, and if so, why didn't he?

Why? As the 2006 mid-term elections came closer, why didn't he back off Iraq, which was clearly dragging both him and the Republican Party down? Why, as we left the mid-terms behind and his approval ratings continued to sink, didn't he just declare victory and bring the troops home?

That's what the people wanted, to judge by the polls. It would have helped during the election. It would have made his time in office easier. And it would have been easy to do.

So why didn't he?

Why continue to suffer not only the rancid hatred of Bush Derangement Syndrome, but the disdain of the general public? Why tie that anchor to his political fortunes and those of his party, when bailing out of Iraq might have done much to help them?

Why? Because it would have been wrong. It would have meant abandoning the Iraqis after promising to help them – his father's mistake. It would have meant retreating in the face of adversity – Bill Clinton's Somalia mistake, which convinced Osama bin Laden that America was a weak and cowardly place, easily cowed, easily defeated.

It would have meant a more dangerous world. A world less able to support human freedom.

So Bush stood his ground, despite snake-bottom poll numbers and dwindling numbers of supporters. Despite the hatred, and disdain, and blame from both his natural political adversaries and his natural political friends. He "defied the public opinion" and "suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity" because it was the right thing – not the political thing – to do.

We should thank him for that. I hope history will.

Lance Burri is a contributor to the Badger Blog Alliance

COMMENTS

First of all, Bush # 1 did not abandon the Iraqs after Desert Storm. The U. N. stopped him from going any further.
Secondly, the election results and the Presidents and War ratings were caused by two distinct things.
The national press and TV, plus liberal Democrats and TV comedians, for over 6 years, continually, on a daily basis, brainwashed the general public with unmerciful, personal bashing and humilitation so that in the last few years, the general public, especially the young, applauded the jokes and humiliating stories and watched the press and TV put daily scoredboards up that showed the number of deaths to date in Iraq. The airways and press were saturated with this constant bashing. They were completely brainwashed.
Then the Blacks in the election got overwhelmed by their racist voting attitude and actually went against their moral consciences that most believed about abortion and gay marriage and voted 95% for Obama.
Actually, the public wanted a win and not a pull out, well into 2006.
Strangely, Bush still gets blamed for the economy that flurished under him until the Democrats took over Congress (who have the purse strings and vote for any spending) who promptly doubled the deficit in just two years.
Conservatives will be back in complete control perhaps not in 2012, but certainly in 2016. You can bank on it!

John Hyland (Tue Jan 20 11:24:11 2009)

Not often we disagree Lance, but on this one we are miles apart.

Milton Freidman once said of GB I, "He is the worst thing to happen to the Republcan party in 50 years." I agree. He set us on the "conservative" road to big government that now threatens to bankrupt us and send us toward third world status, all for the glory of "The New World Order." And junior is doing the job of doing us in even faster.

GB II promised a more humble foreign policy, yet there is evidence that he intended war even as he pronounced those words in 2000.
His administration, with a lot of help from a Republican Congress, increased the size of government at a faster rate than any other, even after discounting for "homeland security" and military expenses.

He chose to ignore the constitution on many accounts.

He did not veto ANY of the many bad laws put before him, unil late in his administration, and I believe he only vetoed one spending bill.

He apparently endorsed the idea of using torture, he initiated a "pre=emptive" war, he lied about the reasons he chose to do so.

See Michael Scheuer on how destructive our foreign policy is, how it inspires the terrorists to hate us. We kill the leaders of other countries, destabilize the countries, support brutal dictators, including the Saud family in Saudi Arabia and in the past, Saddam himself. It is a wonder that we are not even MORE hated for our CIA's "active measures" than what we are. And Bush supported all that and more. And he destroyed our economy (to be sure with lots of help from both Democrats and Republicans, and made us ultimately LESS able to defend ourselves. Not to mention, while we defend borders abroad, we let potential terrorists march right across our border in this country.

So, he most certainly did NOT make the world a safer place.

Though he never got to be president, there is far more courage, honor and dignity in a guy like Barry Goldwater than in Mr. Bush.

No, it is NOT BDS, as you put it, but a principled look at the facts that leads me to criticize Bush. There is not much honor in the man that I can see.

Good by and good riddance. Unfortunately we seem to have jumped out of the frying pan and into a grease fueled fire....

Ken Van Doren (Wed Jan 21 02:10:02 2009)

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