Category Archives: Bush

Preach It: ‘People That Are Smart Know The War In Iraq Was A Disaster’

Bush, Donald Trump, Iran, Media

Pompous CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR, imagined he’d still get the upper hand with a post-South Carolina Donald Trump, but ended up changing the subject … quite a bit.

WALLACE: To the larger point, I mean, whether it was lying or whether it was the mandate — particular now that there’s going to be more and more focus on everything you say, do you think you have to be more careful?

TRUMP: …The case of the war — the war in Iraq was a disaster. By the way, I was against it at the beginning. And Joe Scarborough can show you do that because fortunately he found a clip. But the fact that I said they a successful military operation, maybe it might have been successful as an opening operation, but I was opposed to the war. The war in Iraq was a disaster, OK? It may have been the worst decision ever made, ever made in the country. OK? That’s how bad it was.

WALLACE: But, sir, respectfully — I mean, that wasn’t the issue. The issue is whether or not we were lied into war. I don’t necessarily —

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, right now that’s for other people to term — I don’t say yes or no. I’m not saying yes or no. I’m saying let somebody else determine. …

… Look, the war in Iraq was a disaster. The reason I won by such a large number is that while the pundits, including yourself, thought I made a mistake when I took on Bush on that issue — and I have nothing against Bush. I don’t even know the president. I never met him.

But when I took on Bush on that issue, I never felt it was a bad thing to do because people that are smart know that the war in Iraq was a disaster. And even Jeb Bush in the end admit that the war in Iraq was not a good thing.

WALLACE: New question, new subject.

MORE.

REQUIRED READING:

“RATIONALIZE WITH LIES”
“WHAT WMD?”
“AXIS OF ILLOGIC”
“BLAME BUSH, NOT THE JEWS, FOR IRAQ”
“BUSH’S 16 WORDS MISS THE BIG PICTURE”
“IRAQ LIARS & DENIERS: WE KNEW THEN WHAT WE KNOW NOW”
“Why So Many Americans Don’t Support Attacking Iraq”

UPDATE II: Making America Great Means Exposing ‘W’ (Readers Get IT)

Bush, Donald Trump, Federal Reserve Bank, Iraq, Neoconservatism, Politics, War

“Making America Great Means Exposing ‘W’” is the current column, now on WND (please Like, Tweet, and generally Share column on social media). An excerpt:.

Making America great again, the theme of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, depends on dispelling the myths and myth-making that made America bad.

Beginning with George W. Bush.

Said Saint Augustine: “The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.”

The Republican Party under Bush did the devil’s work. Bar the sainted Ron Paul, not a dog of a Republican lifted his leg in protest of the unjust war on Iraq.

To embark on the good, the GOP must come clean about the bad. To that end, Donald Trump has begun a vital process of expiation.

The 43rd president is categorized as “bad” and ranked 37th by Ivan Eland, author of “Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty.” Having undermined the republic at home and peace abroad, “Bush’s presidency,” avers Eland, “was one of the worst of all time.”

Coming to terms with the Bush legacy, moreover, ought to prevent the rise of another Bush. For the bogus Bush Doctrine is alive and well-exploited in the words and promises of each of the Republican candidates, other than Donald Trump.

The Bush dictum of fighting them over there so they don’t come here —as if Islamic State can’t, won’t and hasn’t attacked there and here—is alive and well-exploited by almost every fork-tongued politician in the Republican and Democratic races.

Other than Trump and Bernie Sanders, there’s a potatoes vs. spuds quality to the foreign policy articulated by both sides.

Each time the interchangeable John Kasich or Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush are asked about death by Muslim in the United States; they whip out that dumb “W” Doctrine, tethering attacks like San Bernardino in the US to wars the US should be waging over in the Middle East, and will be waging if these candidates have their way.

If you liked Bush’s willful and criminal war on Iraq; if you enjoyed watching aw-shucks “W” “Shock and Awe” Iraq to kingdom come with BLU-82s—boy, do you have a treat in store.

If you took pleasure in Bush unseating and executing law-and-order leader Saddam Hussein; you’ll love the plans Rubio, Kasich and Brother Jeb have for Bashar Assad and his family. As for Vladimir Putin, the not-so-comical three stooges have practically diarized conflagration with Russia.

I almost forgot: If you licked your chops when Bush disarmed dem little Iraqi boys by littering their playgrounds with cluster bomblets; your vampiric urges will be sated. In Bush’s Baghdad, hospitals teamed with limbless kids successfully disarmed. The Rubio-Kasich-Bush bandidos will similarly oblige their supporters. Happy times are ahead for their acolytes. …

… Read the rest. “Making America Great Means Exposing ‘W’” can be read in full on WND (please Like, Tweet, and generally Share column on social media).

UPDATE I (2/19): READERS GET IT:

Hi Ilana,

I loved your article reminding all the deaf, dumb and blind, card-carrying Republicans that their asshole (excuse my French) summa cum laude remains, GW Bush.

Jeb, to even mention W’s name let alone appear with him campaigning, shows the guy has no sense of history. W’s Presidency was a total train wreck from his Supreme Court handed Presidency to his final months in office, when the wheels came off the American economy and financial system.

The Republicans running for President are dangerous war mongers with zero understanding of what the Federal Reserve has been allowed to do to this country and the irreversible, unfixable nature of the problem. Clinton and Sanders, it goes without saying, are also clueless!

Hope this finds you well!

All the best,

Barry Downs

UPDATE II: Writes Ron S:

Please accept my heart-felt gratitude for this article. I have been struggling with my own concept of objective reality and the contradictory BS I see all around me. I have long believed that G.W. Bush was not only a horrible president, he may have been the worst in American history. When he was received warmly in SC it made me wonder if I was missing something.

A small list of faux pas by our first semi-literate president:
1. 2 unnecessary wars, fought simultaneously on different fronts
2. approximately $3 trillion thrown to the winds
3. Claims of WMDs that don’t exist
4. violations of any number of international treaties, the Geneva Accords, the Nuremberg principles, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, etc. on war crimes.
5. Lies by his administration include “America does not torture”; “The war (Iraq) will last weeks or months, certainly not years”; “The insurgency is on its last legs; “We will be greeted as liberators”; “Deficits don’t matter”; and, of course, WMD.
6. Bush plunged the economy into a near world wide crisis by allowing the banksters and market thieves to operate with virtually no oversight, then passed the bill onto the people.
7. Bush granted a huge tax break to the 1% who didn’t need it.
8. Bush doubled the national debt.
9. He refused to control our borders.

One foolish man was enough to plunge the entire Middle East into chaos and plunge the West into confusion and disarray. God deliver us from another like him. We cannot afford such a fool in the office of the President of the United States..

The George Bush Rehabilitation Industry: A President’s Day Reminder

BAB's A List, Bush, Democrats, Donald Trump, Elections, Republicans, War, Welfare

Originally published on February 7, 2014, here is a Barely-A-Blog golden oldie:

BY MYRON PAULI

On President’s Day, I will say that I am not enamored with our current White House occupant, or with his recent predecessors. Barack Obama is a boring windbag egomaniac, mouthing a lot of leftist rhetorical garbage. However, in spite of the adulation of his supporters or the detraction of his political enemies, he is not some good or evil demigod, but rather just symbolic of the bloated corrupt corporate-socialist government.

His main opponents, Republicans (most but not all) might have one believe that on 19 January 2009, this government was a small peaceful government running a surplus and respectful of civil liberties presided over by James Monroe – until (eeek eeek) Obama the Space Alien took over. Bush and his legacies of leaving no children behind, warring in Iraq and Afghanistan, the TSA, the Patriot Act, prescription drug plans, and the bailouts – has been lost in the memory hole of amnesia. I find myself not necessarily “defending Obama,” but rather disgusted at the amnesiac hypocrisy of the Republican detractors.

So suppose that in 2016 some Republican wins – Christie, Jeb Bush, Ryan, or one of the so-called “Tea Party” Republicans. Do I expect the budget to be balanced? Do I think they will repeal previous Republican legacies like OSHA, EPA, TSA, DEA, HEW, Student Loans, Americans with Disabilities Act, Patriot Act, Leave No Child Behind, Prescription Drug Plan, and Drone Warfare? What was Reagan’s domestic legacy – repealing CETA and Nixon’s 55 mph speed limit?

Take the most important issue of world history – homosexuality…. Democrats would compel Boy Scouts to take gays and make Christians photograph and cater to gay weddings. Republicans in Virginia passed this: “This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage” – thus my will and medical directive might be invalid. Whatever happened to the right of people to create contracts? Democrats want to shove “Heather Has Two Mommies” in the school curricula while Republicans want to shove “Abstinence Education”. And where in this Kultur-Jihad is freedom of association, freedom of contract, and the authority of parents?

Another good example is health care. Democrats would have everyone compelled to pay for such wonderful medical procedures as drilling holes in developing babies, in utero, and to even require certain trained slaves called “health care providers” to partake in these procedures whether they want to or not. Republicans would have the taxpayers pay millions of dollars to resurrect a dead pregnant woman and keep her on machines for months for the 0.001% chance of creating a baby. Both parties believe they can play G-d with voters choosing between Dr. Mengele and Dr. Frankenstein.

Can we expect better in foreign policy, where our attitude towards foreign nations is either to bribe a country, bomb a country, overthrow a country, or occupy a country? Will either party stop bribing crowds to demonstrate in Kiev or dropping drones on weddings in Yemen? Republicans obsess about 4 dead in Benghazi while ignoring the hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq, forgetting the 242 marines in Beirut, and upset that American forces left Indochina after our interference in a civil war wound up with over 4 million dead.

Do we expect better for civil liberties when Republicans are upset when individual states do not want to jail dope smokers? Do we expect Republicans who shout “kill Snowden” to be any better reforming the NSA, CIA, TSA, no knock SWAT team raids, or the Patriot Act (especially with the last two being their own creations?).

Will either party eliminate agribusiness farm subsidies, ethanol mandates, quantitative easing, Sallie Mae, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, BATF, either DoE, HuD, mission to Mars, the F-35, troops in Italy, Ex-Im bank, trade ban with Cuba, DEA, Amtrak, federal student loans,…?????? Surely you jest! The irony of King Obama is that the expression that his opponents resemble the “pot calling the kettle black” is both figurative AND literal.

The rhetoric will change and the hot, putrid air will blow in the opposite direction.

******
Barely a Blog (BAB) contributor Myron Pauli grew up in Sunnyside Queens, went off to college in Cleveland and then spent time in a mental institution in Cambridge MA (MIT) with Benjamin Netanyahu (did not know him), and others until he was released with the “hostages” and Jimmy Carter on January 20, 1981, having defended his dissertation in nuclear physics. Most of the time since, he has worked on infrared sensors, mainly at Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC. He was NOT named after Ron Paul but is distantly related to physicist Wolftgang Pauli; unfortunately, only the “good looks” were handed down and not the brains. He writes assorted song lyrics and essays reflecting his cynicism and classical liberalism. Click on the “BAB’s A List” category to access the Pauli archive.

UPDATE III: Stick To Your Guns About George Bush, Donald Trump!

Bush, Donald Trump, Iraq, Politics

Nobody should try and turn the notion of impeaching George Bush for the crime of Iraq into a fringe, oddball idea. Those of us, members of the libertarian community, who chronicled every stage in Bush’s pathological and illogical will to war in Iraq, know the notion of impeachment to have had legal and moral merit.

As for George Bush bearing some culpability for 9/11, as Donald Trump has intimated: Damn straight he did.

We all recall Condoleezza Rice’s unblushing justifications for her dismissive treatment of the critical mass of intelligence pertaining to impending terrorist attacks. Even now, it’s essential that she and President Bush not be allowed to fob their responsibilities for September 11 on their underlings. “HOLD THEIR FEET TO THE FIRE!”, I demanded, in May 29, 2002, in a column that still holds true (most of them do), and which details the case of the Phoenix FBI agent who, in July of 2001, wrote a memorandum about the bin Ladenites who were training in U.S. flight schools. Agent Ken Williams’ report was very specific. Over and above the standard sloth the memo met in the Washington headquarters, it transpired that the FBI was also concerned to avoid “racial profiling.”

Bush, moreover, is ranked one of the America’s worse presidents by Ivan Eland, author of “Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty.”

So, while Donald Trump generally had an incoherent and lazy night at the CBS News Republican debate in South Carolina, February 13 (thanks WaPo for the transcript)—he was a beacon of truth when it came to Bush and Iraq.

The exchange:

DICKERSON: … on Monday, George W. Bush will campaign in South Carolina for his brother. As you’ve said tonight, and you’ve often said, the Iraq War and your opposition to it was a sign of your good judgment.

In 2008, in an interview with Wolf Blitzer, talking about President George W. Bush’s conduct of the war, you said you were surprised that Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi didn’t try to impeach him.

You said, quote: “which personally I think would have been a wonderful thing.” When you were asked what you meant by that and you said: “For the war, for the war, he lied, he got us into the war with lies.” Do you still believe President Bush should have been impeached?

TRUMP: … Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake. All right? Now, you can take it any way you want, and it took — it took Jeb Bush, if you remember at the beginning of his announcement, when he announced for president, it took him five days.

He went back, it was a mistake, it wasn’t a mistake. It took him five days before his people told him what to say, and he ultimately said, “It was a mistake.” The war in Iraq, we spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, we don’t even have it. Iran has taken over Iraq with the second-largest oil reserves in the world.

Obviously, it was a mistake.

DICKERSON: So…

TRUMP: George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East.

DICKERSON: But so I’m going to — so you still think he should be impeached?

BUSH: I think it’s my turn, isn’t it?

DICKERSON: [Clearly quoting Trump] You do whatever you want. You call it whatever you want. I want to tell you. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction.

(BOOING)

DICKERSON: All right. OK. All right.

Governor Bush — when a member on the stage’s brother gets attacked…

BUSH: I’ve got about five or six…

DICKERSON: ... the brother gets to respond.

BUSH: Do I get to do it five or six times or just once responding to that?

TRUMP: I’m being nice.

BUSH: So here’s the deal. I’m sick ask tired of Barack Obama blaming my brother for all of the problems that he has had.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: And, frankly, I could care less about the insults that Donald Trump gives to me. It’s blood sport for him. He enjoys it. And I’m glad he’s happy about it. But I am sick and tired…

TRUMP: He spent $22 million in…

(CROSSTALK)

BUSH: I am sick and tired of him going after my family. My dad is the greatest man alive in my mind.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: And while Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. And I’m proud of what he did.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: And he has had the gall to go after my brother.

TRUMP: The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign, remember that.

(BOOING)

BUSH: He has had the gall to go after my mother.

Hold on. Let me finish. He has had the gall to go after my mother.

TRUMP: That’s not keeping us safe.

BUSH: Look, I won the lottery when I was born 63 years ago, looked up, and I saw my mom. My mom is the strongest woman I know.

TRUMP: She should be running.

BUSH: This is not about my family or his family. This is about the South Carolina families that need someone to be a commander-in- chief that can lead. I’m that person.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

UPDATE I(2/14):

UPDATE II (2/15):

Eric Johnson On Facebook: Have you ever gotten any response from Trump Campaign for your support?

Ilana Mercer: No. Politicians don’t care about the best voices; only the loudest and most famous. Never heard from Ron Paul either and him I REALLY supported.

UPDATE III: