This I Believe

President Bush has served our country patriotically for 8 years, and I must admit that I hate to see him go. He’s endured more during his tenure than most presidents. Now I’m not suggesting he was a perfect president, nor am I suggesting he was the greatest. He was, however, a great president and history will certainly be kinder than some of the loud voices within our nation.

Something he said during his farewell speech really describes the weight that was laid upon his shoulders:

“As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.”

I can’t begin to imagine being in his shoes, especially after the foreign attack on our soil. And as much as some like to play it down, 9/11 did change everything. We went to war with Afghanistan to root out the Taliban and hunt down Osama Bin Laden. And to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again, President Bush created Homeland Security in which he devoted many resources to developing new ways for different government agencies to communicate. And from that point our nation has not had to endure another attack and I credit him greatly with keeping our nation safe.

And then there was Katrina. I’m not sure the last time our nation suffered a natural disaster as great as this, and I would expect this to bring great difficulties upon the federal and state governments in their attempt to get help to New Orleans. Huge criticism was leveled at President Bush for what was deemed a slow federal response, but as the President put it so well, over 30,000 people were rescued from rooftops to safety right after the storm had passed. How much quicker do you want a response? And what was even more apparent was the negligence of duties by the governments of Louisiana and New Orleans. Even so, there were things that the administration could have done better, but that is what hindsight tells us. We have learned from those difficulties and I am sure future administrations will have a better response if it ever happens again.

More than anything, though, President Bush’s legacy will be based on how Iraq succeeds in the future. At the time before the invasion, much of the world believed through intelligence that Saddam Hussein was developing chemical and biological weapons. Even in 1998 President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act into law which declares that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government. With Saddam Hussein’s refusal to allow UN inspectors to fully evaluate whether or not he was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and with the reports that there was in Iraq a dangerous minority in Islam that either had, or wanted to have the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons almost anywhere in the world, the choices were growing few on what to do about Iraq. Thus Congress voted in overwhelming majorities to approve the invasion into Iraq to ensure the safety of the citizens of the United States. There were certainly difficulties that we encountered in fighting this war, and it took time to understand better how to fight it. But we learned, adapted, and have become victorious in creating a democratic government in Iraq. In fact one reason that it’s clear to me that we have victory in Iraq is that the Mainstream Media hasn’t been reporting on it lately. But that’s another story.

President Bush stated recently that he wished the intelligence had been different. Looking back there are certainly things I’m sure he would do differently. But unfortunately, he doesn’t have that luxury; nor do any of us. I look back at President Bush’s 2 terms with much thankfulness and appreciation for what he has done for our nation. I know that there are many out there who have been against his presidency from the start, never giving him the chance to succeed, always seeking to find every mistake and report it. But in the face of all the criticism vitriolic hatred he endured, he still made the tough decisions and we still stand as one country.

Thank you President Bush for your service out or nation.