Criticism of George W. Bush
George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, has drawn significant domestic and international criticism since his election in 2000. His level of popular support has declined from 90 percent (the highest ever recorded by The Gallup Organization) immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks to among the lowest for any sitting President. Currently, most major polling outlets have his approval ratings in the 30s, rivaling Richard Nixon's unpopularity at the time of the Watergate scandal. A NBC/WSJ poll taken in June 2007 showed his approval rating at 29%[1] with only 19% of respondents believing that the country is headed in the right direction, the lowest level recorded in 15 years.
His opponents have criticized his role in the controversial 2000 election, his way of fighting the War on Terrorism, his support for the USA PATRIOT Act and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, among many other acts and issues along the way, and there is currently a movement to impeach him. Former President Jimmy Carter has called Bush's presidency "the worst in history"[2], although he later said that comment was "careless or misinterpreted," and that he "wasn't comparing this administration with other administrations back through history, but just with President Nixon's."[3]
Criticisms of the George W. Bush Administration
Foreign Policy and National Defense
Response to September 11, 2001 attacks
In a White House briefing on August 6, 2001, President Bush was informed of the terrorist threat posed by Al Qaeda in a memorandum entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.". Critics allege that these warnings were ignored.[4]
He has also received criticism for publically using phrases like "bring it on" and "wanted dead or alive", both regarding terrorists. He apologized for these incidents in 2006. [5]
Iraq
This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2007) |
Main article: Opposition to the Iraq War
President Bush has taken a significant amount of criticism for his decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 and his handling of the situation afterwards. As President Bush organized the effort, made the case, and ordered the invasion himself, he has borne the brunt of the criticism for the war.[6]
Critics of the invasion claimed that it would lead to the deaths of thousands of Coalition soldiers and Iraqi soldiers and civilians, and that it would moreover damage peace and stability throughout the Middle East. When this later turned out to be the case, public support for Bush and his policies dropped sharply.
Another oft-stated reason for opposition is the Westphalian concept that foreign governments should never possess a right to intervene in another sovereign nation's internal affairs. Giorgio Agamben, the Italian philosopher, has also offered a critique of the logic of such pre-emptive war.
Anti-war sentiment has led to a number of large protests in the US, among the most visible being the one led by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, and some reflection in electoral politics. A significant minority of mostly Democratic politicians, such as former Vice President Al Gore, opposed the invasion of Iraq. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for President in 2004, voted to authorize the invasion, and said during his campaign that he stood by his vote. Howard Dean, a rival for the nomination, ran on an anti-war position, but did not favor quick troop withdrawal. Dennis Kucinich, another candidate for the Democratic nomination, favored replacement of the U.S. occupation force with one sponsored by the UN, as did Ralph Nader's independent presidential candidacy.
Torture
Another point of discussion has been whether the detainment and treatment of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison and the Guantánamo Bay detainment camp constitutes torture or not. Although a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll "found that sizable majorities of Americans disagree with tactics ranging from leaving prisoners naked and chained in uncomfortable positions for hours, to trying to make a prisoner think he was being drowned."[7]
President Bush has stated that "We do not torture."[8] Yet, many people and governments[9][10][11] don't see it that way and have staged several protests.[12][13][14][15] These sentiments are partly a result of the Pentagon's suggestion that the president can legally torture anyone he deems to be a threat to security,[16] and because the Bush administration has repeatedly tried to stop attempts at limiting torture,[17] including legislation by President Bush to exclude himself from the laws created by the McCain Detainee Amendment. Furthermore many people[18][19][20] are concerned by the Bush Administration's use of Extraordinary rendition, where individuals are sent to other countries where torture can easily occur without any form of oversight. Bush defends this practice on the basis that:[21][22]
[...] the United States government has an obligation to protect the American people. It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way. And we will do so within the law, and we will do so in honoring our commitment not to torture people. And we expect the countries where we send somebody to, not to torture, as well. But you bet, when we find somebody who might do harm to the American people, we will detain them and ask others from their country of origin to detain them. It makes sense. The American people expect us to do that.
A pentagon memo lists many interrogation techniques which were requested and approved during the presidency of George W. Bush on the basis that "The current guidelines for interrogation procedures at GTMO limit the ability of interrogators to counter advanced resistance".[23] The Bush administrations connections to torture has been one of the main considerations in the movement to impeach George W. Bush.
However, these arguments often suppose that the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse was in some way condoned or ordered by President Bush, when in fact Human Rights Watch (2004-05-24). "Summary of International and U.S. Law Prohibiting Torture and Other Ill-treatment of Persons in Custody (Human Rights Watch, 24-5-2004)" (HTML). Global Issues (in eng). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 2007-06-18. International and U.S. law prohibits torture and other ill-treatment of any person in custody in all circumstances.
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Other Human Rights
The Bush administration has been criticised for failing to support the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Bush administration "has taken the position that disability is neither a human rights issue nor a predicate for international law."[24]
Domestic Policy
Domestic criticism of Bush has waxed and waned throughout his administration. Before 9/11, Bush was reviled by the bulk of the American left, mostly for his role in the controversial 2000 election, and for perceived shortcomings in his No Child Left Behind program for education.[25] The next major domestic item which Bush faced significant opposition to was his program of tax cuts, codified in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. Both acts ultimately passed, but calls for their repeal lasted until the end of the 2004 campaign. Democratic candidate Howard Dean in particular called for a repeal of the part of the tax cuts which affected the wealthiest Americans in order to fund public health care programs and reduce the federal deficit.[26]
After Bush was re-elected, he made Social Security reform a top priority. He proposed options to permit Americans to divert a portion of their Social Security tax (FICA) into secured investments, creating a "nest egg" that he claimed would enjoy steady growth. This led Democrats to label the program a "privatization" of Social Security. Bush embarked on a 60-day tour to shore up public support for the plan, attacking the political reaction against reforms. Ultimately, however, no consensus on a plan could be reached within the congressional Republican party, and Bush was left without any political will to pass his reforms. The issue was dropped, and the status quo maintained.[27]
Bush has been increasingly forced to defend his actions on many fronts and has been unable to generate widespread support in the nation as a whole.[28] An example of the general displeasure and extent to which many Americans have lost respect and confidence in the President lies in his recent election as the "Biggest Tool of 2006" in an online poll created by Comedy Central.[29]
The Republican Party's defeat in the 2006 US midterm elections is taken as another sign of plummeting public support for President Bush. After the Democratic Party's victory, MSNBC reported that "The war in Iraq, scandals in Congress and declining support for Bush and Republicans on Capitol Hill defined the battle for House and Senate control".[30]
Civil Liberties and Expanding Government
After 9/11, Bush continually signed legislation interpreted as limiting the civil liberties of United States citizens. The two most prominent pieces of legislation are the PATRIOT Act and the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which remove certain privacy rights and the right of habeas corpus. Criticism has come from both sides on this issue. Conservatives have criticized him for increased government spending, including non-defense spending, after running as a candidate who pledged to reduce spending and make government smaller. Liberals have criticized him for eliminating basic civil liberties and for not fulfilling his Constitutional duties to uphold habeas corpus.
Response to Hurricane Katrina
The President would come under more criticism when the powerful category 5 Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast region in the early hours of August 30, 2005. In the wake of the hurricane, two levees protecting New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain collapsed, leading to widespread flooding. In the aftermath of this disaster, thousands of city residents, unable or unwilling to evacuate prior to the hurricane, became stranded with little or no relief for several days, resulting in lawless and unsanitary conditions in some areas. Blame for inept disaster response was partially attributed to state and local authorities, but public outcry in the disaster's early hours was largely directed at the Bush administration, mainly FEMA[31] and the Department of Homeland Security[32] alleging weak crisis management and coordination. Rapper Kanye West said in a relief fund raising concert that "George Bush doesn't care about black people," alleging that Bush did not do anything to help merely because most of the victims were black.[33]
The criticism led to the resignation of FEMA director Michael Brown, and eventually, Bush himself accepted personal responsibility for what he deemed, "serious problems in the federal government's response" in a September 15, 2005 press conference. Currently, the administration is investigating itself, yet several politicians have called for either congressional or independent investigations, claiming that the Executive Branch cannot satisfactorily investigate itself.[34][35][36]
Environment
Bush has been criticised by national environmental groups for his administration's attacks on and rollbacks of hard won environmental protections going back more than three decades and for its general anti-environmental thrust. These are in areas ranging from the attacks on the endangered species act and the clean air and water acts to climate change and many more. For a comprehensive (to date of the report) list see the National Resources Defence Council's report The Bush Record, NRDC's comprehensive account of the Bush administration's environmental policies from 2001 through 2005. More up-to-date info can be found here. According to MSNBC:
- After four years in office, the George W. Bush administration has compiled an environmental record that is taking our nation in a new and dangerous direction. Last year alone, Bush administration agencies made more than 150 actions that weakened our environmental laws. Over the course of the first term, this administration led the most thorough and destructive campaign against America's environmental safeguards in the past 40 years. [1]
In Texas Chainsaw Management (2007) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argues that "The verdict on George W. Bush as the nation's environmental steward has already been written in stone. No president has mounted a more sustained and deliberate assault on the nation's environment. No president has acted with more solicitude toward polluting industries. Assaulting the environment across a broad front, the Bush administration has promoted and implemented more than 400 measures that eviscerate 30 years of environmental policy." Kennedy has also written a book Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy. See also the website BushGreenWatch
Criticisms of George W. Bush
Leadership
George W. Bush's leadership skills have been brought into question on many occasions. The most remarked occasions was on the moment of the September 11th 2001 World Trade Center attacks: while a reading of "The Pet Goat" to elementary schoolchildren in Florida, after being told by Chief of Staff Andrew Card that "We are under attack", television cameras filmed Bush in a state of utter immobility that lasted seven minutes.[37]
Intellectual and psychological capacity
George W. Bush's intellectual capacities have been questioned by press, media personalities and politicians on numerous occasions. [38][39] This tendency led to farcical hoaxes such as the U.S. Presidents IQ hoax[40] A 2006 historiometric study published in the scientific journal Political Psychology, which estimated the IQs of all US presidents since 1900, by analyzing speeches and publications by the presidents, rated him second to last, with an estimated IQ between 111.1 and 138.5, and mean of 120 (which still is well above average).[41] In an interview, it was noted by the study's director that "Bush may be 'much smarter' than the findings imply" but that he "scores particularly unimpressively for 'openness to experience, a cognitive proclivity that encompasses unusual receptiveness to fantasy, aesthetics, actions, ideas and values.'"[42] As of 2001, no official IQ data for George W. Bush had been made available to the public,[43] and none have been published to date. It should be noted that Bush had better grades in college than either Al Gore (who still did graduate cum laude, contrary to Bush),[44] or John Kerry.[45]
Personal behavior
Some of Bush's opponents use a term previously ascribed to his father, "Bushism", to describe Bush's colorful mispronunciation and misuse of words when speaking. Bushisms have been widely popularized and archived across the Internet due to their often humorous nature.[46] Even as early as the 2000 presidential debates, this was the subject of a Saturday Night Live sketch (see "Strategery").[47] Perhaps his most famous mispronunciation is that of "nucular" instead of "nuclear" when referring to nuclear weapons. In addition, he is often disparagingly called "Dubya", a stereotypical Texan pronunciation of the letter "W," which is Bush's middle initial.
Also, Bush has exhibited behavior deemed shocking [48] and appalling[49] by many mainstream weblogs and publications. A prime example is the unwelcome shoulder rub he gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G-8 summit.[50] [51] Other issues include an incident where Bush wiped his glasses on an unsuspecting woman's dress on the David Letterman show [52], an incident when he was younger, when he ruined a rented house in Montgomery Alabama and never paid for it [53][54] and Bush making a middlefinger gesture in front of a camera during his time as governor [55].
Another more recent example is during a commemorative ceremony in which Bush presented the mothers of fallen soldiers with a Presidential coin, in which he jokingly commented to one of them "now don't go sell it on eBay". [56]
References
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- ^ "Carter: Bush's presidency has been 'worst in history'". KomoTV. May 19, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
- ^ "Carter: Anti-Bush remarks 'careless or misinterpreted'", Associated Press, May 21, 2007. Retrieved May 21, 2007
- ^ Jason Leopold (January 31 2006). "Bush ignored 9/11 Warnings". truthout. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
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sizable majorities of Americans disagree with tactics
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[...]denying his agency tortures prisoners. But most Americans think otherwise.
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a majority of Americans think it's wrong for the government to use any of these methods
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No country should exclude itself from the international human rights development process
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More than 300 protesters gathered outside the US embassy for the hour-long demonstration.
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(help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Sun, Lena (2005-06-27). "As Torture Survivors Watch, Activists Stage Arrests Near White House". Washington Post News (in eng). The Washington Post Company. Retrieved 2007-01-20.
The men and women who survived imprisonment, beatings and rapes knew ahead of time that yesterday's arrest of a group of their supporters in front of the White House was a symbolic protest to spotlight the continuing use of torture by governments around the world, including the United States.
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(help) - ^ "Congress presses for torture ban". BBC News. December 15 2005. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
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(help) - ^ Chandra Lekha Sriram (December 13 2005). "Exporting Torture: US Rendition and European Outrage". JURIST. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
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(help) - ^ "US Consul's gaffe provokes outrage in Scotland". SACC. January 16 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
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(help) - ^ Mary Crane (December 6 2005). "U.S. Treatment of Terror Suspects and U.S.-EU Relations". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
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(help) - ^ Dan Isaacs (June 14 2005). "US suspects 'face torture overseas'". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
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(help) - ^ William J. Haynes II, General Counsel (2002-11-27). "Counter-Resistance Techniques" (PDF Reprint ACTION MEMO FOR SECRETARY OF DEFENSE). DEFENCE PENTAGON. Retrieved 2007-01-21.
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(help) - ^ Thornburgh, Dick and Reich, Alan (November 3 2004). "Human Rights for the Disabled". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
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(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Bush stumps for 'No Child Left Behind'". CNN. January 6 2004 . Retrieved 2007-11-01.
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(help) - ^ Bruce Bartlett (January 06 2004). "Tax Reform". TrendMacrolytics. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
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(help) - ^ Allan Sloan (February 8 2006). "Bush's Social Security Sleight of Hand". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
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- ^ "Bush 'Wins' Poll". Comedy Central. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
- ^ "Democrats win control of Senate". MSNBC. Nov 9 2006. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
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(help) - ^ Mike M. Ahlers (April 14 2006). "Report: Criticism of FEMA's Katrina response deserved". CNN. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
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(help) - ^ "Chertoff: Katrina scenario did not exist". CNN. September 5 2005. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
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(help) - ^ Lisa de Moraes (September 3 2005). "Kanye West's Torrent of Criticism, Live on NBC". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
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(help) - ^ Diana Pearson (Sep 25 2005). "CRONYISM in the Bush Administration". Time. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
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(help) - ^ "How Many More Mike Browns Are Out There?". Time. Sep 25 2005. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
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(help) - ^ Adair, Bill (2002-09-08). "The drama in Sarasota". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
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(help) - ^ "President Bush Has Lowest IQ of all Presidents of past 50 Years". snopes.com. 2004-07-15. Retrieved 2006-09-11.
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(help) - ^ Dean Keith Simonton (2006). "Presidential IQ, Openness, Intellectual Brilliance, and Leadership: Estimates and Correlations for 42 U.S. Chief Executives". Political Psychology. 27: 511–526. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2006.00524.x. Retrieved 2006-09-11.
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(help) - ^ "Bush gets bad rap on intelligence". St. Cloud Times Online. January 14 2001. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
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(help) - ^ "Gore's Grades Belie Image of Studiousness". Washington Post. 2000-03-19. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
- ^ "Who is smarter, Kerry or Bush?". USA Today. 2005-06-10. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
- ^ Jacob Weisberg (November 4 2000). "Bush, in his own words". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
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(help) - ^ Dana Milbank (April 22 2001). "Serious 'Strategery' As Rove Launches Elaborate Political Effort, Some See a Nascent Clintonian 'War Room'". Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
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(help) - ^ Georgie Anne Geyer (May 31 2007). "Georgie Anne Geyer: A spreading terror". Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
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(help) - ^ Sean-Paul Kelley (April 30 2007). "Bush in the Bunker". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
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(help) - ^ Carla Marinucci (July 19 2006). "Cowboy george: Bush's unexpected squeeze of the German chancellor has the Internet howling". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
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(help) - ^ "Bush: Liebes-Attacke auf Merkel (Bush: Love Attack on Merkel!)". Bild. May 1 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
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(help) - ^ "Bush Uses Woman's Clothing As Kleenex". About.com. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
- ^ "Alabama Getaway". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
- ^ "George W. Bush's missing year". Salon.com. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
- ^ "Bush's One-Fingered Victory Salute". About.com. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
- ^ Mark Silva (May 31 2007). "Bush to mother: Don't sell on eBay". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
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See also
External links
- "The Worst President in History?", 2006, Rolling Stone article by Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz
- "He's the Worst Ever", Dec. 3, 2006, The Washington Post column by Columbia University historian Eric Foner
- "Faux Pas"