George W. Bush was a bad president.

Life is to blame for everything. Robert Musil A good president is one who defends the United States The president swears to, with the best of his ability, “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That is the primary duty of the president and the standard by which president's are judged and ought to be judged. Pro acknowledges as much when condemning the traditional evaluation of Presidents and proposing new standards whereby the highest plaudits are offered to presidents who refuse to fight attackers and who operate for the benefit of the world rather than the nation. Perhaps the job of the President could be redefined to suit Pro's standards, but our debate is about how the job is now defined. Pro says historians err in calling wartime presidents “great” or “good.” Are we to take that to mean that FDR was a bad president because he responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor? Applying that to Britain, should we say Chamberlain was good leader and Churchill a bad one? Peace is the goal, but it often comes at a heavy price. Bush successfully defended the United States The 9/11 attack and the events that followed dominated the Bush presidency. At the time of the attack, Republicans and Democrats had spent a decade cooperatively dismantling much of the U.S. military force on the grounds that because the Cold War was over, it was no longer needed. Clinton signed legislation that reduced military strength by 600,000 soldiers. There was no Department of Homeland Security and very few defensive measures in place to protect against terrorist attack. Past legislation had built a wall between the FBI and the CIA so as to isolate domestic investigations from from foreign intelligence. The rules of conventional warfare were defined, but the terrorist style of warfare did not fit the conventional model. Bush lead the country in building the Department of Homeland Security, integrating the intelligence agencies, and defining the rules of warfare needed for the war against terror. In World War II, 500,000 enemy combatants were imprisoned on U.S. soil in accord with the rules of conventional war, all held indefinitely with none given any right to a trial. Bush developed a procedure for classifying terrorists as enemy combatants by military tribunal with one level of appeal civilian courts. The legislation was passed with bipartisan support and ultimately passed Supreme court challenges. The war in Afghanistan kept the terrorists preoccupied with their own immediate survival while the defensive infrastructure was built. The strategy worked. There was widespread anticipation of additional major terrorist strikes within U.S. borders, but the Bush strategy worked and none occurred. In the long term struggle against terrorism, the U.S. desperately needed to build credibility among despotic leaders in the Middle East who only respect force. Bush also believed that democracy was a long term solution to terrorism. The Congressional resolution authorizing war in Iraq gave twelve reasons for military action. [1. http://en.wikipedia.org...] Only five of the reasons related to terrorism, and there is no doubt they were harboring members of al Qaeda and giving bounties to anti-Israeli terrorists. The main reasons were that Saddam was attempting to shoot down U.S. aircraft, was defying UN inspections and sanctions, and was widely practicing genocide and torture. With a well-educated populace, Iraq was also a good candidate for democracy. Signs are reasonably good that democracy will take hold in the Middle East. At the time of Iraq, critics denounced the idea as an utter impossibility. The Arab Spring is off to a rough start, but polls in seven Arab countries show “reform and rights issues now being perceived as political priorities in most countries.”[2. http://tinyurl.com...] War casualties to eliminate Saddam were not genocide. Saddam had killed about 800,000 during his rule. [3. http://middleeast.about.com...] WMDs We now know from jailhouse interviews that Saddam wanted the world to think he had WMDs in the belief that it would scare Iran and the Kurds. He believed the US would never take action. Saddam intended to resume WMD production as soon as possible. [4. http://tinyurl.com... pp 4, 6.] UN inspector Hans Blix said in his book that he too believed that Saddam had WMDs; Blix wanted more time to find them. [5. http://www.defencemanagement.com... Bush, as well as nearly all the prominent Democrats agreed to act based upon honest belief. Journalist Bob Woodard, who took down Nixon with Watergate, verified the vigorous attempts by Bush at verification, and that Bush had asked all the right questions of all the right people. [6. http://tinyurl.com...] Economic issues Bush inherited an economic downturn from Clinton, and lowering taxes spurred growth and recovery. Low interest rates in fact spur growth, and have been used by the Fed in every downturn in modern times. The economic disaster was not mainly a product of low interest rates, but rather a product of Fannie and Freddie buying bad loans. Fannie and Freddie were run by Democrats throughout the Bush years, under the belief that they were expanding home ownership. The Bush Administration went to Congress three times demanding that Fannie and Freddie be reigned in, and each time Democrats in Congress blocked action using the filibuster and reprimanding the Administration for even suggesting there was a problem. [7. http://tinyurl.com...]"Before the crash of late 2008 President Bush’s budget deficits were 0.6 percentage points smaller than the historic average. Deficits did not “spiral” during the Bush presidency or the decade. The bumped around the historic average, then spiked up in the last year." [8. http://tinyurl.com...] Obama's 2009 deficit exceeds all eight years of Bush war spending combined. [9. http://tinyurl.com...] War spending was less than $1 trillion for all the Bush years combined, and it was well within the debt capacity of the country. There is no evidence it had anything to do with the financial crisis. It amounts to less than $ 0.2 T per year, while Obama deficits are over $1.5 T per year. The "tax cuts for the rich" amount to less than $0.1 T. Tax cuts and war spending are thus a small part of the current problem. Free Trade Bush caved to pressure from Congress to protect a failing steel industry, but his overall record is excellent. Bush summarized, “When I took office, America had free trade agreements in place with three countries: Canada, Mexico, & Israel. By the time I left, we had agreements with 17, including developing countries such as Jordan & Morocco, and the young democracies of Central America.” [10. http://tinyurl.com...] Bugliosi book Pro cites Vincent Bugliosi's book, a work of fantasy. Bugliosi admits in the book that no reputable publisher would touch it, and even liberal lawyers wouldn't be associated with it. Bloomberg News said, “Bugliosi's outrage is not in doubt, but it never yields anything more coherent than the blueprint for a publicity stunt.” [11. http://tinyurl.com...] Constitutional rights Pro cites “Whitley” [Whitney] that Bush violated the Constitution. The original system of detention in GITMO was ruled unconstitutional by the SOCUS, but a new system passed with bipartisan support in Congress is now in place and has passed court scrutiny. Plans to invade Iraq President Clinton signed a law in 1998 making it US policy to remove Saddam, and military plans were developed at the time. [12. http://tinyurl.com...] Someone once said, "The U.S. military has contingency plans to put land mines on the moon." It's their job. President Bush was re-elected because he kept the country safe from terrorist attacks after 9/11. That's what history will show.