Open Letter to George W. Bush

Today marks the end of your eight years in office. As the world prepares to usher in the new administration under President-elect Barack Obama, the press and critics are preparing to frame your legacy. I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of your accomplishments and failures, as well as the lessons learned that the new President should apply to his term in office.

For starters, we should look back at the condition facing our nation in 2000. Gas prices were increasing while the tech bubble was collapsing. The U.S. and NATO were involved in a nation-building exercise in the former Yugoslavia. Our Destroyer, the USS Cole, was attacked in an Yemeni harbor. The nation was split due to a close election. Today, gas prices are close to where they were in 2000, though coming off of a high over $4.00 per gallon. The U.S. and NATO are still operating in Eastern Europe, but are now also tied up with Afghanistan and Iraq. While we have not had an attack on U.S. soil since September 11th, we have seen increased sizable attacks on our allies, with the latest being India. And now, the nation is anticipating an era of change.

Change from what? It has been the word that the nation has heard for two years. For some, it is merely a change from Republican control to Democratic. Others are looking for a change from Conservative to Liberal policies. But for many, it is a change from what they view as the failures of your administration. There are two issues that many will remember your term in office for, being the war on terror and the condition the economy is in as you leave office.

For them, the war on terror lost its focus in 2003 when the nation decided to re-enter Iraq when we needed to put more troops into Afghanistan. Under the impression that Iraq was in the position to arm our enemies with weapons of mass destruction, a concern shared by the world following the chemical attacks he perpetrated against his own people as well as financing the families of suicide bombers, we entered Iraq with a small alliance of nations willing to go to battle. After five years of policing one nation and struggling to maintain control of another, people are looking for a change, a withdrawal from the Middle East.

The costs of the two wars are putting a burden on a national economy facing a failure of our economy, with the government spending a trillion dollars to bail out the companies, essentially nationalizing the financial sector. After years of financing the end of a recession through tax cuts for the individual taxpayer and companies alike, as well as deregulation on numerous sectors, the government increased the national debt to a record level, just to be tripled through bailouts. Coupled by an increase in unemployment initially triggered by record fuel prices and a drop in consumer spending, the anticipated tax returns for 2009 will come in well below projections.

Other failures listed include the slow response to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, interrogation techniques of foreign fighters held in the base at Guantanamo Bay, cooling ties with Russia, embryonic stem cell research, and No Child Left Behind. For them, the burden of your term in office was too much to bear. Even during the 2008 election campaign, members of your own party were running away from you in the hopes to win their elections. Though John McCain ran a hard campaign, he was unable to overcome the desire for change.

Though a large list of negatives, it is easy to overlook the positives from your time in office. While the number of attacks adverted on our soil is unknown, we do know that some plots have been foiled by the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security. While it is unfortunate that such a reorganization of our security and intelligence forces occurred in response to an attack, the pulling of our resources and sharing of information between branches was a needed response. Many of the tools used to protect us have come from the Patriot Act, even though the large bipartisan piece of legislation has since been chastised as an infringement of our personal liberties.

In addition to protecting us at home, our overseas achievements also paid dividends. Libya chose to renounce their weapons of mass destruction program. Yellowcake stockpiles within Iraq were liberated and transferred to Canada without the terrorists knowing. The financial accounts of terrorists were frozen across the world. New democracies formed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Kosovo. With our partnership with Russia, the number of nuclear warheads around the globe has also been reduced.

One of the largest foreign policy successes occurred in Africa, where the U.S. has flooded the continent with funding and supplies to combat the spread of AIDS. Education on abstinence, funding for protection and the proving of medication to combat the epidemic has been the largest humanitarian project in the continent in our nations’ history. Additionally, supporting the new government in Liberia after years of hostile rule has improved the stability of the nation with whom we share a close historical bond.

Domestically, some might say your single largest accomplishment was placing John Roberts and Samuel Alito, Jr. on the Supreme Court. Both gentlemen are young compared to the rest of the Court, so their presence will influence the decisions for years to come. No Child Left Behind, even though the source of scorn by the teachers unions, was your hallmark bipartisan program. Teaming with Senator Ted Kennedy, the legislation revamped the ailing public school system by placing responsibility for achievement on both students and teachers. Initial scores show improvements in both reading and mathematics. Other domestic achievements include signing thirteen free trade agreements with other nations, Medicare prescription drug plan, and backing our country out of the Kyoto agreement.

From both the achievements and disappointments from your time in office, the are lessons learned that President-elect Obama can use towards his policy decisions. For starters, the State Department and the Department of Defense need to work closer together when preparing to combat future problems abroad. While we had a successful plan to liberate Afghanistan and Iraq, our post-liberation plans came up soft. Iraq fell out of control for almost a year when basic security and protection within the major cities and government failed while our military forces were spread out across the country searching for weapons and terrorists.

Working with the United Nations is a double-edged sword. While having their rubber stamp of approval for engaging forces in different countries is beneficial, getting them to provide aid and support is next to impossible. If we are to enter into Sudan or any other nation requiring our forces, we should plan that the U.N. will not be sending forces or aid until after the area is secured. But so we aren’t seen as ignoring the organization that we provide the bulk of the funding for, we need to encourage the U.N. for more humanitarian projects such as providing emergency aid to regions ravished by natural disasters.

Global warming is not something that can be legislated on the international scene; especially one nation carries the bulk of the burden. The Kyoto agreement was fundamentally flawed with large nations such as China and India limited or exempt from responsibility while the United States was singled out to make the largest changes. Each nation should be encouraged to set their own goals for improving the environment to the best of their abilities. In the end, even small changes added together leads to large improvement.

Spending of federal dollars needs to have better management. The latest push to remove pork from legislation is just the start, though legislation such as Pay-Go should be dead on arrival. If 2008 hasn’t taught us anything, the fundamental concept behind Pay-Go is flawed. We would not be able to bailout the financial sector for a trillion dollars with anticipated tax revenues shrinking. If anything, our nation should have a fiscal policy that is inverted from Pay-Go: increased deficit spending during lean economic years, while decreasing spending during strong economic years.

Our emergency coordination and response needs to be better coordinated between the federal government down to the local communities. Hurricane Katrina exposed numerous flaws in the way we prepare for, and then respond to emergencies. The catastrophe in Mississippi was handled well since the local and state government was able to relocate residents before the storm hit, getting them out of harms way. New Orleans, on the other hand, essentially abandoned the residents, even though much of the city lies below sea level and the forecast for a major disaster was well known. After the storm had passed, blocked roads and washout bridges delayed our relief supply deployments. While our helicopters were able to enter the area to airlift refugees, we were not airlifting basic necessities into the region in quantities sufficient to hold the survivors over until the trucks arrive. In the future the federal government needs to ensure the local governments heed the warnings and require evacuations to take place.

Lastly, the federal government and the policies need to be more in line with the Constitution. Even though the Medicare prescription drug plan was a success, with the byproduct being increased competition for basic retail drugs, the concept of federal healthcare is outside of the scope of the Constitution. The same goes with SCHIP, Social Security, bailouts of the automotive industry, and so on. Additionally, the Congress needs to return to the process of declaring war, rather than passing resolutions. By declaring war, our nation has more tools at her disposal to combat the enemy.

In closing, I want to thank you for your dedication and service to our country. Your first term did not get off to a good start due to the unexpected division within our country following the election. Then September 11th derailed your domestic and foreign policy plans, though you have worked hard to ensure our country doesn’t get attacked again. Continuing with the preparation, you have worked closely with the Obama transition team to get the up to speed. This level of cooperation, especially between two different political ideologies, has not been seen in recent memory. So thank you once again, and I wish you a long and happy retirement.