Bush Halts Offensive Combat; Kuwait Freed, Iraqis Crushed [today in history, 2-27-1991]

New York Times ^ | 2-28-1991 | Andrew Rosenthal

[Reverend Bob]

And (you forgot to add) if Bush had deposed Saddam we wouldn't have had to keep troops in Saudi Arabia afterwards. That was another thing that helped Osama in his recruitment and propaganda.

Bush I may have been a nice guy but he was a failure as President. In foreign policy his failure to finish the job in Iraq and his hostility to the Israelis served to destabilize the whole middle east. When the Berlin wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed he suffered a collossal failure of vision and wasted precious capital in trying to prop up Gorbachov and keep the USSR and Yugoslavia from fragmenting. Instead of endorsing freedom he actively conspired with those who would crush it, all in defense of the existing order. He was, in short, a fool of the worst type. Or, more charitably, he was simply the wrong man at the wrong time. Instead of adapting to the times in which he lived and trying to direct events with an eye to the future, he stood in the path of a rapidly changing reality with his eyes fixated firmly on the past. He got flattened, and rightly so. Sadly, he remains as clueless today as he was then.

And don't even get me started on his domestic policies!....Bush I d*mn near killed the Republican Party. Thank God the son, at least, has the vision thing that the father so sorely lacked!

Ending rant now...

[Wonder Warthog]

"He was, in short, a fool of the worst type."

Well, not the absolute worst type. He was not, after all, a Democrat. I contend that Billy Jeff [Clinton] and James Earl [Carter] were far worse. It just goes to show, though, that having a great resume in governance does NOT imply real competence.