Kamna Arora

He was born on July 06, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. He was the eldest son of the 41st US President George Herbert Walker Bush. He served as the Governor of Texas from 1995-2000. He is a two-term President, as he narrowly defeated Senator Al Gore in 2000 and Senator John Kerry in 2004. He is the 43rd President of the United States of America, George Walker Bush.

The acquirer of the highest post of the US has a few days left in office, as the country`s hoi polloi are all set to put a seal on the name of new President on November 04. No matter who wins – Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain – he will have to tackle gloomy situations on almost all fronts, thanks to Bush`s stewardship.

Two things have characterised the Bush administration. First is hardhearted partisanship and second is iron commitment to presidential power. During his first presidential term, Bush had pushed through a conservative agenda of massive tax cuts and a war against Iraq regardless of having the narrowest of mandates. In his re-election bid in 2004, Bush failed to reach out to middle-of-the-road voters.

Bush has been guiding the US destiny for the last eight years. The `popular` events that shaped `unpopular` Bush`s presidency include the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Iraq War, capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, invasion of Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Guantanamo Bay, No Child Left Behind Act, and the recent financial bailout plan. Intelligence failure and secret torture chambers further tarnished the image of the administration completely.

I will throw light on the most important issues that need the attention of Bush`s successor to restore the confidence of people.

US in Afghanistan and Iraq: Aftermath of September 11, 2001

The date that changed the face of international terrorism is September 11, 2001. It will not be an overstatement if I say that the terrorist attacks orchestrated by al Qaeda on New York`s World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in the ninth month of the year proved to be a turning point in the administration of George Bush. It gave a reason to the ambitious Bush to get down to restructuring the world. Bush declared a `war against terrorism of global reach` in the wake of attacks. However, the characteristics and constraints of infamous terms `global war on terrorism`, `war against terror` are still unclear.

He made efforts to ink a Bush doctrine on the basis of pre-emption, and then sent troops to Afghanistan in October 2001 and to Iraq in March 2003.

There are five major reasons given by the US to justify the invasion of Iraq. First, the US claims that Iraq possessed and developed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and hence violated UN Security Council resolutions. Second, the Iraqi regime led by Saddam Hussein had ties with al Qaeda. Third, Hussein adopted brutal methods to rule Iraqi people and violated human rights in a gruesome manner. Fourth, the US intended at promoting democracy in the Middle East. Fifth, the US will be in a better position to improve ties between the Arab world and Israel.

A number of aspects of the Iraq venture have resulted in a different way from what was professed prior to the war. There were no WMDs uncovered, no clear connection between al Qaeda and Iraq has been found, and no imminent danger that would deserve a pre-emptive war was discovered. Albeit the US began its journey of invading Iraq as liberators, they are now viewed as occupiers.

It gives the impression that the war that was waged against al Qaeda soon changed into a much more ambitious venture, encompassing inter alia an invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The security situation in Iraq is improving, but in Afghanistan it is deteriorating. In fact, the nearly-completed National Intelligence Estimate, the work of 16 intelligence agencies, is reportedly claiming that the situation in Afghanistan now is the worst since the US-led invasion of 2001 and the country is in danger of a "downward spiral" into violence and chaos.

According to Scott McClellan, Bush`s former press secretary during seven long years, Bush and his advisers while launching the Iraq War "confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candour and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war".

In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in 2007, Bush cited the US` failure in Vietnam to justify staying on in Iraq. Associate Editor and Chief Foreign Correspondent of The Washington Post compared Bush`s statement with Richard Nixon`s "I am not a crook" utterance at the time of Watergate scandal and Bill Clinton`s "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," in leading to "unintended consequences of a most damaging kind for a sitting President".

Who will doubt that as Bush enters his last days of presidency, his place in history will unquestionably rely on the unpredictable future of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bush`s tactical response has not succeeded to cut down terrorism, as dreamt and propagated by him. According to former British spy chief Stella Rimington, the Iraq war could be blamed for fomenting terrorism. "So I think you can`t write the war in Iraq out of history. If what we`re looking at is groups of disaffected young men born in this country who turn to terrorism, then I think to ignore the effect of the war in Iraq is misleading," Rimington said in an interview.

In a critique of the Bush`s administration in the New York Review of Books, Jane Mayer writes, "Seven years after al Qaeda`s attacks on America, as the Bush administration slips into history, it is clear that what began on September 11, 2001, as a battle for America`s security became, and continues to be, a battle for the country`s soul."

September 11 did not only see terror strikes, but also the day witnessed the beginning of polarisation of the world between Islam and the West. One of the major casualties of the US-led Iraq invasion was the polarisation of the world between a Muslim ‘‘us’’ and a Western ‘‘them’’.

The Bush Administration’s recasting of ‘war on terror’ as a "war against Islamic fascism" in some of the speeches in 2006 offended the Islamic societies. Commenting on this, President of the Islamic Society of North America, Ingrid Mattson, had said in September 2006, “I`m convinced that it is not only inaccurate, but unhelpful. If our major concern is security, security of this country, this is a term that has very bad resonance in the Muslim majority world and makes us feel uncomfortable here.” On the other hand, White House supporters and outside Republican strategists defended the usage of term, saying it was just a part of an effort to more clearly ascertain the ideology that prompts many organised terrorist groups.

A poll conducted in 2007 throughout the Muslim and Arab world tagged Bush as the most hated public figure in the region, while Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was found to be the most popular.

The next US leadership will have to make efforts to close the rifts created by the Bush administration. It will have to get back the country’s credibility to regain the stature of ‘world’s leader’.

Another repercussion of the Iraq war is that the event has disturbed the regional balance of power. Anwar Sadat, Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy, Shibley Telhami, point out the hunger for assertion of Arab power after the Iraq invasion. The fall of Baghdad has marked an attrition of Arab power and the rise of Iranian power in the Gulf and beyond.

Bush has failed to allay regional fears. And his successor will have to ensure that he takes care of the Middle East situation quite well.

Guantanamo Bay

Another responsibility for the upcoming White House leader will be the closure of Guantanamo Bay - a reviled symbol of the Bush administration - as the US President has decided not to shut down the prison facility near Cuba. He cited a number of legal and political risks in its closure.

The New York Times has claimed that Bush has actually never given his attention to the proposals drafted by the State Department and the Pentagon that figured out options for transferring the detainees somewhere else.

Notably, the decision taken by Bush not to close down the facility came after the US Supreme Court doubted on the future of the American detention centre.

A number of human rights organisations have time-to-time protested against the `inhumane` interrogation techniques used at the centre, thus breaching the basic rules of morality, international law and various other international treaties obeyed by the US.

According to Jennifer Daskal, a counter-terrorism specialist at the Human Rights Watch, Bush is scared of Guantanamo detainees not because they "will pose a security threat, but that they will serve as living reminders of the administration`s mistakes in setting up Guantanamo."

The Centre for Research on Globalisation points the finger at the Bush administration for operating concentration camps in many countries that holds tens of thousands of detainees and hiding them from the Red Cross, the body empowered to monitor compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

Agents of the US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have been found actively involved in renditions around the world. And their actions have been authorised and defended by the Bush administration. According to Amnesty International, six planes used by the CIA for renditions have made around 800 flights in European airspace, including 50 landings at Shannon airport in Ireland.

After uproar by the human rights organisations due to leaked information, Bush acknowledged the existence of secret CIA prisons on September 07, 2006. He further added that the prisons acted as an important tool in the war on terror and that intelligence collected had helped in saving lives. He then claimed that the CIA did not use torture and treated detainees humanely. If that was the case, what led Mr Bush conceal the existence of CIA prisons from his own countrymen?

Later, the Council of Europe came up with an investigative report to clear if there were detention facilities in eastern Europe as well. The report concluded that allegations made against the US and 14 European governments were “substantially true”. According to the report prepared by Dick Marty, people were blindfolded and abducted by groups of masked CIA agents. Then they were rendered and then tortured in the prison camps.

Marty added that those detainees’ were subjected to a full-body cavity search. Some of them were also reportedly beaten and there were cases of a “foreign object being forcibly inserted into the man’s anus.”

The report noted, “Afterwards the victim was shackled, his ears muffed and a bag placed over his head, and he was flown off to an unknown location. In some cases the man is drugged and experiences little or nothing of the actual rendition flight.”

The Council’s report revealed the horrendous reality of the Bush administration.

Why did Bush -- the so-called ‘saviour of democracy and protector of human rights’ – refused to ink a UN treaty that does not allow governments from carrying out forced disappearances and holding individuals in secret detention?

Financial Meltdown

Today, the US is caught up in two wars with a financial crisis of a degree not witnessed since the days of 31st President Herbert Clark Hoover. I am not blaming Bush for spreading this crisis that began with overeager lending and borrowing, leading to a large housing bubble. Rather he should be held responsible for the dismal handling of the financial crisis. It reflects Bush`s shortcomings as a leader.

When the House rejected the bailout plan on September 29, it highlighted Bush`s failure to explain that a crisis on Wall Street also means a crisis on Main Street. He led off lobbying legislators only a few days before the vote. Then he did not even travel to Capitol Hill to make a personal appeal to Congress.

The 32nd President of the US, Franklin D Roosevelt, had unveiled the significance of direct communication with the Americans with his "fireside chats" at the time of the Great Depression. It showed that one of the most powerful tools of any President is the skill to win over public debate directly with the help of appeals and persuasion. Bush has utilized this skill erratically. Analysts find his addresses to the nation on the financial crisis quite short and passionless.

Although the revamped bailout plan has been passed by the Congress, but this was not because of the Bush administration. It was due the fact that a run on the markets had scared legislators.

The credibility of this plan is lacking. According to a survey conducted by Housing Predictor dot com and released on October 21, a huge majority believe the bailout will not succeed in stabilising the US housing market.

The flop show of the rescue package was nothing new for Bush, as his administration has witnessed failure in almost every reform they have attempted since 2004, most notably Social Security reform and immigration reform.

`No Child Left Behind`

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) - the huge Federal education program passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support in Congress and signed into law by President Bush in January 2002. Bush`s main education policy is intended at closing the education gap and increasing learning, but the law`s standards have proved to be unrealistic, as more and more children and schools are lagging behind.

The mission of this policy is to see 100% students at grade level in Mathematics and English by 2014.

I do not understand one thing that how come all public schools from New York City to Alaska could have similar issues that need a one-size-fits-all approach. Since its enactment, NCLB has done nothing much but "adding another layer of bureaucracy to education".

Educators are now looking for a change in the policy with the entry of the new President. Both the presidential candidates, McCain and Obama, have hinted at reforming the law.

The Bush legacy

Has Bush managed to stand the test of time? Let me answer it this way. In the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll, Bush has received the lowest approval rating (27%) of all the US Presidents. It shows the lack of confidence that Americans have in Bush and his government. Bush`s predecessor Bill Clinton had finished his two terms with ratings close to 70%.

In his book `The War Within`, Bob Woodward concludes that in the last eight years Bush has "displayed impatience, bravado, and unsettling personal certainty about his decisions. The result has too often been impulsiveness and carelessness, and, perhaps most troubling, a delayed reaction to realities and advice that run counter to his gut. . . . By his own ambitious goals of 2001, Bush has fallen short."

Bush`s my-way-or-the-highway approach has ruined his ability to pronounce entitlement reforms a success. The most pejorative verdict on Bush did not come from the Democrats but from the 133 Republicans who voted against a Republican administration`s bailout plan. The past four years have seen conservatives turning against Bush on almost every issue from immigration reform to financial management.

Bush had once vowed to unite the country, he has, however, even failed to form a hegemonic party. In fact, Bush is saying good bye to the Republicans in the worst state they have been in for decades.

As I have already mentioned, Bush`s legacy will largely be decided on the unpredictable future of Afghanistan and Iraq. According to Woodward, in the final days of his unfortunate presidency, Bush "had not rooted out terror wherever it existed. He had not achieved world peace. He had not attained victory in his two wars." This series of failures has pronounced a judgment on Bush`s leadership style.