America's Worst President?
By Royce Carlson

FOREIGN POLICY   He led us to war in Afghanistan as a response to 9/11.             He promised to capture Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan . He couldn’t find him. He is not paying enough attention to Afghanistan and now the Taliban is re-asserting itself.   He led us to war in Iraq . He claimed that we needed to invade immediately because Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and could attack us at any minute. After nearly a year of searching, no weapons stockpiles have been found. He led an invasion of Iraq without a clear plan on what to do there once Baghdad was taken. He refused to wait for the help of our allies and for the support of the United Nations in taking action against Iraq , causing anti-American sentiments to surge worldwide, even among our allies. Bush and Cheney hinted regularly that Saddam Hussein was somehow connected with the 9/11 attacks. There has been absolutely no evidence linking Hussein with Al Qaeda or the 9/11 attacks. In fact Al Qaeda was an enemy of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. The war on Iraq was planned long before the 9/11 attacks. Since Bush’s declaration that the invasion was a success, American soldiers have been dying almost daily in bomb attacks. The country is now split into three factions, Sunni, Kurds, and Shiite Muslims. The Iraqi people want democratic elections, but the U.S. doesn’t want direct democratic elections in Iraq .   Bush’s foreign policies are scaring the whole world. He changed America ’s defense policies to allow the military to enact pre-emptive strikes against other nations that we suspect might be able to attack us. His policy changes also allow the military to use nuclear weapons in a first-strike. He increased spending so that now the U.S. military budget is larger than the next 20 countries’ budgets combined. He has invaded two countries in two years. Neither Afchanistan or Iraq was attacking the U.S. , preparing to attack, or even threatening an attack. Bush has threatened Syria , North Korea and other countries causing many countries in the world to wonder whether theirs is the next one to be invaded. Due to Bush’s foreign policy blunders, global anti-American sentiment is very high.   ECONOMIC POLICY   He gave a huge tax break to the rich. He threw a $300 bone to the rest of us and gave the bulk of the tax cuts to the rich.   During the Bush presidency our economy went from a surplus to a huge deficit. When Bush took office we had a balanced budget with a surplus. Today, after Bush’s tax cuts combined with a radical increase in spending, our budget deficit is approaching a record half trillion dollars with an even greater deficit to come. On top of this incredible deficit he has just come out with this idea to send a man to the moon and to Mars. This is probably the worst time to propose something like this. Maybe we should send him to Mars.   He has destroyed his party’s reputation for smaller government. Bush’s spending increases have broken records. Entire new bureaucracies have been created. Conservative Representatives are pushing him to quit his out of control spending.   His policies largely benefit big business His environmental rollbacks benefit high-polluting industries like mining and power generation at the expense of the health of employees and citizens living nearby. His Medicare overhaul program largely benefits the pharmaceutical industry at the expense of the people who need the drugs. The program will cost over 30% more than he promised it would when he convinced Congress to pass it. His military spending benefits big oil, aerospace, and Halliburton, where Vice President, Dick Cheney, was CEO.   ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES   He has undone 20 years of environmental protections             He tried to repeal reductions in the allowed amount of arsenic in our water. He instituted his “Clear Skies” initiative which allows industry to increase the amount they can pollute our skies. He instituted the “Healthy Forests” initiative which promotes logging. The Vice President is still under investigation for hiding the names of the people he consulted with in coming up with the country’s energy policies.   He wants to keep the U.S. dependent on oil. Funding for energy conservation has been reduced by half. Money for commercialization of existing alternative energy technology is a fraction of the amount spent in Germany and Japan . The clear indication is that the Bush administration wants to keep us dependent on fossil fuels rather than develop and commercialize renewable energy in our own country.   HUMAN RIGHTS POLICIES             He has undone years of civil rights protections With his Patriot Act he has put in place the means for the government to arrest us for appearing to be associated with terrorist or environmental activist organizations. The government can now keep track, without your knowledge, of what books you buy or checkout at the library. Patriot Act II is in the wings with even more oppressive capabilities. He tried to start a program called Total Information Awareness, where a giant database will link any electronic information about all of us – what we buy, where we shop – everything with an electronic footprint. He is still holding hundreds of people in Guantanamo Bay , Cuba without access to lawyers, without a time limit, and without allowing us to even know their names.   In my lifetime, no other president has done so much damage to world opinion, to the environment, to the sovereignty of other nations, and to our rights as Americans. He is, in my opinion, the worst president in the last 50 years. The list above only scratches the surface. No wonder people want Anybody But Bush for president in 2004.   Sources and Resources:   Taliban claiming responsibility for suicide attack in Afghanistan - Associated Press News 24 – Houston   1/27/2004 http://www.news24houston.com/content/headlines/?ArID=22901&SecID=2   No WMDs in Iraq: David Kay – Associated Press – Times of India 1/26/2004 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/445880.cms   Intensifying Shiite rivalries eat into community's unity at critical time – Associated Press Boston Globe – 1/30/2004 http://www.boston.com/dailynews/030/world/Intensifying_Shiite_rivalries_:.shtml Taste of autonomy inspires Kurds' dreams of more - Tom Hundley,Chicago Tribune re-printed in Kansas City Star - 1/29/2004 http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/7829928.htm   Iraqis’ Hearts and Minds - Erich Marquardt – IslamOnline – 1/28/2004 http://www.islamonline.net/english/In_Depth/Iraq_Aftermath/2004/01/article_17.shtml   The Definition Of 'Imminent' - Russ Baker – TomPaine.com – 1/30/2004 http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9869   McCain calls for outside investigation - Capital News 9 web staff – 1/30/2004 http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=57430   U.S. Works Up Plan for Using Nuclear Arms - Paul Richter – Common Dreams – 3/9/2002 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0309-01.htm   U.S. Military Budget Still the World's Largest, and Growing – Center for Defense Information   INTERNATIONAL SURVEY: America falls out of global favor - staff – Detroit Free Press – 12/5/2002 http://www.freep.com/news/nw/pew5_20021205.htm   White House to Project Deficit of $521 Billion in 2004 - By Andrew Clark and Adam Entous – Reuters – 1/30/2004 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4246294   No Clear Skies - Donovan Webster and Michael Scherer – Mother Jones Magazine –Sept. 2003 http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/09/ma_496_01.html   Debunking the "Healthy Forests Initiative" – Sierra Club http://www.sierraclub.org/forests/fires/healthyforests_initiative.asp   Slower, Costlier and Dirtier: A Critique of the Bush Energy Plan – National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/scd/execsum.asp   Supreme Court accepts Cheney appeal on energy taskforce - Bill Mears – CNN http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/12/15/scotus.cheney/   USA PATRIOT Act – ACLU information page. http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12126&c=207   Get Ready for PATRIOT II - Matt Welch – AlterNet - 4/2/2003 http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15541   Total Information Awareness: Down, but not out - Farhad Manjoo – Salon.com – 1/28/2003 http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/01/29/tia_privacy/index_np.html   Guantanamo Bay: A Global Experiment in Inhumanity - Louise Christian – Common Dreams – 1/11/2004 http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0110-02.htm

 

Royce Carlson is the editor and webmaster at Zenzibar Alternative Culture – a portal and directory to alternative thought and culture on the Web – www.zenzibar.com. He lives in Prescott, Arizona.