Ryan ChartrandThe past eight years have been witness to history in the making. America was attacked on home soil for the first time since Pearl Harbor, two wars were and continue to be waged, the economy has gone through two recessions and the government grew larger faster than any other time in history.
In recent years hate, animosity and anger towards President Bush has become a national pastime. People have been so blinded and paralyzed by their disagreements with Bush that it has bastardized facts in lieu of perception. I have been disappointed in recent years by President Bush’s reluctance to stand up in defense of his decisions. I respected his position that the office was greater than the man or the rhetoric used against that man. However, by not taking a stand he has let the other side set the stage and start writing their version of history.
That started to change on Monday as Bush gave his last scheduled press conference. I felt proud about my support of him for the first time since Sept. 11. He was unapologetic and reinforced that what he did, with the information provided, may not have been popular but was the right thing to do. As Americans we commonly have a short memory.
I ask, are we better off today than we were eight years ago. Is the country better?
International Policy
Sept. 11, 2001 was the second day in American history that will live in infamy. More than 3,000 lives were lost that fateful day and since then our country was irrevocably changed and went to war as a result of it.
The War on Terror has been largely criticized due to the war in Iraq. Most had no reservations with going into Afghanistan because they felt like this taking the fight to the enemy. But when an axis of evil was established, the American people wavered. Few understood why Iran, Iraq and North Korea were singled out as nations that supported or sponsored terrorism. This disconnect was primarily due to a lack of communication with the American people, rather than a lack of validity of the dangers posed by the identified nations.
Sept. 11 showed us that we could no longer look the other way when were attacked. It showed us that as a nation we needed to remain proactive in reducing threats to our nation. If we did not fight them, they would fight us; we took the fight to the enemy, as a result the danger to our nation has decreased, but not been eliminated.
There are many of you in my readership who might believe that we should talk to our enemy, that negotiation will solve our problems. While I respect your ability to have that opinion, it is fundamentally flawed. Negotiation merely prolongs the inevitable; it does not change a mindset that is opposed to our own set of values and beliefs.
We all disagree about the means taken to get us to the point we are today. From Gitmo to the PATRIOT Act, everyone on all sides has a different take on how we should have done things. But I believe that while heavily criticized today, Bush’s international policy will eventually be looked upon as visionary and wise.
Domestic Policy
I am much more critical of President Bush on matters of domestic policy.
His administration’s handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will remain in debate for years. Having a former director of a horse show at the helm of FEMA at the time doesn’t help the debate.
“Could things have been done better? Absolutely. But when I hear people say the federal response was slow, then what are they going to say to those chopper drivers, or the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?” Bush said.
On Monday, he also spoke about his handling of the economy. Tax cuts were the right thing to do. It helped stabilize the economy after Sept. 11 and spurred economic growth. Yet I fear that in the grand scheme of things, Bush will be blamed for recent economic conditions even though he had little, if anything, to do with creating the situation, the buck stops with him.
Where we are today
So are we better off today? Yes and no.
The economy is a mess (although the issue of whether Bush is to blame is another debate entirely). He also presided over the largest expansion in government spending in American history, but that would not have been possible without the help of Congress.
Yet his administration has maintained security in the face of adversity. Since Sept. 11 we have not been attacked on our own soil. Regardless of whether you agree with the reasons why or how we have gone after the enemy, it cannot be disputed that we are safer today than we were eight years ago.
As we transition from one administration to the next, I encourage you to remember how far we’ve come. We’re still one nation under God: free and democratic, despite efforts to change our great system into a socialistic welfare state. President Bush has generally made the right decisions as president, although they rarely were the popular decisions. Has he been the president we’ve always wanted? No. But he has been the president and the leader we’ve needed.
As he said in his own words on Monday, “Presidents can try to avoid hard decisions and therefore avoid controversy. That’s just not my nature. I’m the kind of person that is willing to take on hard tasks, and in times of war people get emotional; I understand that. I never really spent that much time worrying about the loud voices. I of course hear them, but they didn’t affect my policy, nor did they affect… how I made decisions.”
Ian Nachreiner is an agricultural science senior and a Mustang Daily columnist.