Bush's Leadership

Bush's Style
President George W. Bush likes to appoint people to positions and then let them run their department. When Bush appoints good people, this style works. When Bush appoints unqualified or incapable people, then bad things happen.

With Bush's appointments, bad things commonly happen. Look at Mike Brown as head of FEMA and the New Orleans Katrina debacle, or look at Donald Rumsfeld and the Iraq war.

Iraq As an Example
Iraq was badly planned, with no contingency plan, and it over committed the United States military. Dissenting voices were ignored, even when the dissenting voices were knowledgeable military people. The Army Chief of Staff was forced into retirement, because he vehemently disagreed with Rumsfeld's assessment. (In hindsight, it was Rumsfeld that should have been forced into retirement).

As an American, I am appalled at the lack of options that we have. How do we turn this mess into a success without flooding the country with troops that we do not have? There is no viable option to achieve the vision that Bush proclaimed in going into Iraq: to nurture a middle east democracy.

(Of course Bush probably wasn't aware that the middle east does have democracies: both Israel and Lebanon. Lebanon's government has been badly undermined by rioting and terrorism, a direct result of the turmoil that Bush has fermented with his ill-conceived foray into Iraq. Egypt, too, is a democracy in name, but the results are usually predetermined. Kind of like elections in the old Soviet Union).

Results So Far of Iraq
What must the Iraqis feel, living in a country that is unsafe six years after a foreign invasion? Neither the American nor Iraqi government is providing basic security, which is a prerequisite to rebuilding their country.

Bush has lowered Americans to the level of terrorists by denying that the Geneva convention applies to them, by denying them Criminal trails in our courts, by classifying evidence as secret and denying the defendants the right to see the evidence. If you are accused of a crime, how do you defend yourself without knowing the evidence? Can't the government convict anyone of any crime by asserting "we have the proof, but you can't see it"?

And we have tortured people, in a misguided effort to elicit information and confessions. I had always been proud to be an American, but I am not proud of our record here; I am ashamed.

Finally, we have fermented terrorism throughout the middle east.

And Bush wants to stay the course. Amazing!