http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/06/22/do2201.xml Not sure I agree completely, but it does remind us, I think, that the common human failing of assuming that our contemporary assessment of things (whichever party or president you're talking about) is the only valid one is false.
As much as I can't stand Bush and am tired of this friggin war there are some good points. 9/11 was horrible. Anyone that refutes that is an idiot. Only time will truly tell why it happened if time ever does actually. Way back in my college days I had to write a paper. Subject? Should we or should we not have dropped "the bomb". I said we should have but can you imagine making that decision? My reasoning was rather simple. Taking Japan by direct attack would have cost even MORE lives on both sides but as I mentioned already - can you imagine making that decision? Drop a few bombs and kill a few hundred thousand innocent people? People that had the gall to actually live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? None have been dropped since though have they. It may well happen though but who really knows the solution to stopping it from happening? Bush may well go down as one of those Presidents that shows up on the list as one of the worst and one of the best at the same time. Nixon makes that list a lot. At this point I'd take Nixon or Truman over Bush any day. Good article KLJ.
In the fall of 2002, I wrote a paper in a Christian ethics class on a similar question. I asked if the Hiroshima bomb was ethical, from a Christian perspective. I concluded that it was, although I made no statement about the Nagasaki bomb. I don't know if you're old enough to remember either of them (I was born during the Nixon administration, so I'm not), but a question I would ask is, would you have said the same thing in 1974 or 1953?
Does anyone think that this country would have the stomach to do either of the 2 options...drop the bomb on Japan or invade them if WWII was being fought in today's world? I have my doubts.
Too young for Truman I'm afraid but born in 62 I knew a little about Nixon. Had I been older I would have known more of course but bottom line is I had no problem with Nixon. I don't believe there is such a thing as an honest politician when you get down to it. Nixon made some horrible blunders but his foreign policy was strong. Future presidents consulted him on these matters. Where does our foreign policy come from now? Seems "intelligence" and how can a select group line their pockets. Time will tell as Bone said but what I see now has a lot more negatives than positives IMHO.
If our next President is weak on defense, we will go back to a " law enforcement " way of dealing with the terrorists AFTER they bomb us again. We will LEGALLY try to stop Iran from using Nukes. Nobody mentions that the Clinton administration treated the FIRST trade center bombing that way, AND all the attacks on our embassys and the USS Cole, etc etc etc. When presented with Bin Laden by Sudan, Clinton passed because there was no LEGAL reason to hold him that would stand up in court.
People also tend to forget that going to war in Iraq was rather popular at the time...how easy we foget- remember the politicians (from both parties) making their cases for taking action? Remember all of Congress on the steps of Capitol Hill singing & praying? Obama is proud to say he was anti-war from the beginning but given the facts as we knew them and the climate being what it was at the time I really would have have to question his judgement- again!!
I think his failure to balance the budget will be the hardest thing to explain looking back from the future.
