A Dukakis election, G-D forbid, would have emboldened the Soviets. The man was not perfect, but 41 did many good things. Jeane Kirkpatrick summed it up best, essentially that Jimmy Carter wasn’t an international threat (didn’t worry about American exceptionalism), but Dukakis was.
The chaos in Iraq and the formation of ISIS was a direct result of pulling out and the Dems’ recklessness. ISIS was foreseeable just by looking at what happened to Afghanistan after it was left in a vacuum.
There were big problems later on with his relationship with his former foe, the worst example of anyone to ever hold that office, Mr. Clinton. One thing that the WW2 generation was not good at was recognizing the brute nature of the hippie hedonists. He treated them with decency and assumed they were decent. On this, he was unfortunately wrong, as we know all too well. But I think it stemmed from his nature of decency and he humanly/mistakenly thought that most others were like him. It’s a big mistake, but not a negative reflection of character.
There is a lot to criticize Bush for, but still, he was better than any Democrat.
The Gorbachev reforms that would ultimately fail were well underway years before Bush took office.
The 1991 Russian coup collapsed without any help from Bush, it wouldn't have turned out any differently under Dukakis.
The chaos in Iraq and the formation of ISIS was a direct result of pulling out and the Dems’ recklessness. ISIS was foreseeable just by looking at what happened to Afghanistan after it was left in a vacuum.
Bush 43's 2008 surge in Iraq worked but by then it was far too late.
Obama had campaigned on removing US troops from Iraq and that was one of the few promises he actually fulfilled with disastrous consequences.
There were big problems later on with his relationship with his former foe, the worst example of anyone to ever hold that office, Mr. Clinton. One thing that the WW2 generation was not good at was recognizing the brute nature of the hippie hedonists. He treated them with decency and assumed they were decent. On this, he was unfortunately wrong, as we know all too well. But I think it stemmed from his nature of decency and he humanly/mistakenly thought that most others were like him. It’s a big mistake, but not a negative reflection of character.
He believed the Clinton's were Washington Establishment and members of the Ivy League much like himself.
As for Bush's personal decency, he had at least one mistress (Jennifer Fitzgerald) and you can actually Google for pictures of him groping women.
We've had a continuous presence in the Middle East since August 1990, when the the first US troops arrived as part of Operation Desert Shield.
ISIS grew from Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AIQ expanded after George W. Bush relieved the Iraqi Army of most Sunni Muslims, perhaps the dumbest move during the occupation.