Posted by
FeargalX on Saturday, November 08, 2008 2:50:13 AM
Deconstructing the Problems with GWB
My first problem is that in 7 years we were unable to kill or capture Bin Laden. The U.S.A. has no excuse for that (except for gross incompetence along with no focus on the goal).
Prior to going to Iraq many so called conservatives argued with me that we had already finished the job in Afghanistan (in 2003!), so we should now go to Iraq. It was impossible to reason with these people. Of course I did not “like” Saddam Hussein – but there was no connection between him and 9/11. Hussein was a secularist – and provided many more rights for women than were allowed in Islamist regimes. His Vice President was a Christians.
Aside from that, Iraq (like Yugoslavia) was an artificial country with many delicate balances that could easily fall apart. It was unclear to me how “everything changed” after 9/11 to the extent that GHWB’s book written 5 years earlier fully explaining why invading Iraq would be a mistake.
Apparently, neocons convinced dummy GWB that we would be greeted as liberators – and a thriving democracy would develop. Nobody bothered to explain that Iraq had no history of democracy and it could end up being dominated by the only other country in the world with a majority Shiite Muslim population (Iran) which has a bigger population and would likely have a much stronger army after we invaded. The Neocons had an answer: Chalabi. Chalabi was going to be a combination George Washington and Charles DeGaul.
The war was expected to cost nothing. Oil funds would be used to reconstruct Iraq. By the way, the plan was to get rid of all Baath party officials in all government employment (sorry about that Police, Army, Roads, Water, Sewer Electricity and Garbage).
So, America invaded – and spent perhaps $1,000,000,000,000 in the process (in 2004 I was ridiculed for suggesting that it might costs more than $200,000,000,000).
Many historical functions that were performed by the military was channeled to private contractors – creating a huge conflict as to policy.
By the way, prior to the Iraq war Iraq actually had a lot of Christians – guess where most of them are now? Either: (1) dead or (2) refugees. Guess what else? Many of their churches (some 1000 years old) have been blown up. Earlier this year a bishop was kidnapped a murdered. GWB cared very little about these issues.
After a few years of grave stupidity, the Bush administration figured out that many people joined the Baath party to simply get along with the government (I guess they did not know that Saddam also killed many people from that party). The Baath party, for a party in the Arab world, was hardly a radical party.
Even today, Iraq does not have the electrical plants, water, sewage and garbage collection that it once did.
So, was this really worth the $1,000,000,000,000. The government simply could have gotten rid of Saddam with the right behind the scenes move (a la Allende in Chile) had it wanted an ally in Iraq. Saddam had made plenty of enemies – the promise of lifted trade sanctions, special forces help, and $100,000,000,000 in aid would have convinced a handful of generals to do what we screwed up.
Today, Iraq now has more sharia law – less rights for women and it largely bans alcohol. Not exactly a success story.
Oh yeah, Bin Laden does not matter (as per GWB in 2004). If Bin Laden does not matter, why not just let every criminal out of prison?
Aside from all of the poor Iraq decisions, the administration’s decision to label people traitors and to demonize any and all who questioned the administration was another breath of fresh air.
GWB had no control whatsoever over spending – largely because of Iraq, but also because of the Medicare prescription drug bill – which is largely simply a hand out to big pharma. Why again does the VA and various Medicaid programs try to negotiate with drug companies, but these policies will not? Also, the rules and coverage issues change so much from year to year, how can someone actually make an informed choice?
Also on medical care, why is it that people who never have worked, criminals and illegal immigrants are covered for medical conditions in this country – but someone who is middle class and loses a job – so has to chose between paying a child’s college tuition or medical care – if they have a heart attack – they lose all of the money they have saved up – while the homeless criminal pays nothing for the same care?
All Americans should have entitlement to Medicaid (not just the poor, criminals or aliens). The program should not be an ideal program ever – but it should ensure that serious problems don’t get worse and people do not die unnecessarily.
The private market then can actually provide valuable medical coverage (something better than the bottom Medicaid). As it is now, many programs are actually no better than Medicaid.
Those who say our medical care would get worse are simply wrong and negative. Those who think our taxes would have to go up are also wrong (why do we already spend more on government provided health care per capita than most rich countries who provide national health insurance). A good model might be looked upon as Germany’s health care. In Germany about 1/3 costs are private; 2/3 are government (in the U.S. it is 50% each). Nobody would purchase coverage that gives nothing more than what the “free” plan would provide. So competition, would provide something better then the basic – the same reason many people send children to private schools.
Anyway, Bush did nothing to correct this problem. Instead, he and conservatives studied it as a freemarket issue.
Heathcare is incredibly regulated. For example, it is very hard to become a doctor, or set up a medical facility. Even if someone in the medical profession (such as a nurse) invented some wonderful new procedure that person could not perform that procedure. The Drug industry is a mess – doctors prescribe drugs sometimes because they are afraid (especially because they do not want to prescribe pain meds) so instead they prescribe drugs like Vioxx (drug companies make big money – but people die).
One of the reasons countries with socialized medicine obtain results comparable to America is because doctors tend not to prescribe expensive (often unnecessary) meds – instead they give cheap opiate based pain meds (many countries sell them over the counter).
Also, there is a public effort to keep people healthy (at a good weight, not smoking or drinking to excess).
I would love it if someone could by-pass medical school and take a few exams to become a general practitioner (or family medicine doctor) – it would also be nice if people could decide what medicines that they need. Such ideas would actually be compatible with a free market. Total market regulation is not.
GWB did nothing to try to keep our manufacturing base. While some people blame unions and others blame companies, the blame is largely with the U.S. government. Our governmental policies were responsible for medical costs being more than double the rate of inflation from 1980 to 2000. Guess what happened? That destroyed the U.S. owned auto manufacturers. The unions and companies had no way of knowing that things would go so out of whack – but they did.
Foreign companies – which do not have huge retiree numbers and also started building cars here mostly after the 1980s – have done fine in America. It is not the “lazy worker” or even evil “unions” – these costs are out of hand. Sadly they are about to destroy a critical industry.
People too easily forget that we only won WWII because we had so many auto plants that could easily be converted to tank, plane and bomb production.
Also on trade, GWB pushed for cheap food from places (especially China and Mexico). Our government for nearly 100 years has done a pretty good job with inspection our food production – it cannot do this in either China or Mexico.
Pretty soon we are going to be unable to even feed ourselves. Check out how much food in now foreign made – 10 years ago it was unheard of.
How strict do you suppose the chemical use is in those countries? What kind of hygienic conditions exist in Chinese food plants.
Money Came First for Bush
Instead of trying to cut back political correctness or racial quotas, Bush spent all his chits on the war – so he did little to try to change these policies.
In fact, Bush pushed for more immigration. Invariably, this leads to the “quota” issue since for whatever reason “Hispanics” irrespective of racial or cultural background, benefit from preferential treatment. (I was competing for a grad school spot with someone from Costa Rica who was a millionaire, was a non-citizen, whose sister had blond hair and blue eyes, had worse grades and test scores than I did – I was not admitted to that program – he received a full scholarship). Some would say it is “bitter” to complain about such things – I submit it is wrong to cower and accept such unfair and wrong policies.
Bush was apparently too stupid to understand that if you increase the numbers of a so called group “Hispanics” – and they only vote about 30 to 40 percent for your party, you have less of a chance to win future elections.
As far as the goal of simply fair and equal treatment for everyone – that will never happen in my lifetime. Things are way too screwed up and so many government and university jobs are predicated on those policies, they never will go away.
By the way, you are a racist for questioning these policies.
George, thanks again for your wise stewardship.