The seventh and the last address of Jeorge Bush, Jr. to the US Congress was 53 minute long. It was interrupted with applauds 72 times. The President mainly spoke about the economy. That is understandable. He outlined the domestic political problems: energy dependence on third countries and migration policy. He mentioned Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Israel, Georgia, Ukraine, Cuba, Belorussia and even Zimbabwe. He opened a secret of an American miracle, and promised prosperity to the citizens in the long-term prospect. In general, everything was as in the song about a beautiful marquise, as cut and dried as it sounds. Nevertheless, let’s try to make a sketch of a picture named “Heritage of US President 43”.
So, on November 7, 2000 the United States of America witnessed one of the most contradictory presidential elections in the history. After calculation and recalculation of ballots, after five-week long legal examination, George Bush, Jr. received a key to the White House. The US Supreme Court that time just granted a victory to him, when it banned further recalculation of ballots to avoid aggravating crisis of power. In so doing, the Texan became the fourth president of the USA who got the biggest number of electors’ votes but who lost to his opponent Gore by the number of citizens’ votes - by more than a half of million people.
At inauguration Bush promised to reform the social insurance program and Medicare (one of the most important domestic problems at that time), reduce tax burden, increase fund allocations to education and armed forces. Already in February 2001, he manifested his militarist bias when he approved restricted bombing of Iraq. And after six months America suffered the greatest shock.
It looked like a Hollywood disaster movie. Due to technological capabilities of mass media, the whole world watched in the CNN live transmission the two airlines hitting the Twins. Incredible, beyond any imagination and therefore mindbending picture. It seemed that on that day, September 11, 2001, it was not only Manhattan and USA that quaked. After declaration of war on terror, the Bush rating climbed up to 88 per cent. The population shocked with the scales of the World Trade Center disaster was ready to support any his decision. The American eagle’s retaliation was prompt. Afghanistan providing a shelter to Ben Laden became the first NATO bridgehead in the East.
And it was later when the press started speculating that the September disaster was preventable, that it was allegedly almost scripted by the CIA. People saw movie “Fahrenheit 9/11” that described in detail the connections of the oil and military lobbies with the developments in the United States. UK Ex-Minister of Environment Michael Meacher forwarded accusations against the White House. According to him, one month before the WTC disaster Mossad allegedly sent to the USA its experts with a warning on the prepared attack. That time the USA got information on revitalization of a large terrorist group consisting of about two hundred persons. Mossad named four terrorist who later participated in the hijacking ,and indicated a probable method of the terrorist attack. Bush has done nothing to exclude it.
Surely, if these data are ever officially confirmed, Americans never forgive Bush for several thousand people died in the Twins, as well as for the death toll in Afghanistan and Iraq. But from the geopolitical point of view after September 11, 2001 US military bases appeared in those corners of the globe that the USA could earlier only dream about. Bush wanted the global domination and he has got it.
The Afghan safari just followed by the Iraqi campaign. It is well-known that the official aim was to destroy Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. In fact it was done to liquidate Saddam himself. As far back as in 2000, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis Libby and Bush’s younger brother Jacob (that time the Florida Governor) prepared a draft document named Pax Americana. The document described the so-called image of the dominating USA. Another document named Rebuilding America’s Defences prepared in September that year provided occupation of Iraq even it is ruled by a more democratic regime than that of Saddam Hussein. According to Wolfowitz: “America supported by its allies should permanently demonstrate its world supremacy”.
Nowadays only a lazybones doesn’t say that the “war on world terror” was required to obtain access to the natural resources. If in 1990, the USA satisfied 57 per cent of their needs with our energy resources, then in 20020 this figure will be 39 per cent only. It will radically affect the defense capacity. And it is not already a matter of money, yet we should not forget the economic aspect of the problem. Americans who are just crazy about their security and who permanently see an enemy at the gate, need to maintain several thousand strong contingents of their troops deployed all over the globe. They are pledge of quietness for the people domestically. These troops need not only food (yet a hungry American soldier will not fight too), they need the same oil, weapons…
By the way, about the weapons or to be exact about its free sales in the United States. The president term of George Bush was shaded with a series of shootings. The loudest shoots were of course in the Virginia Technological University, 32 people were killed. Dozens accident occurred in schools, supermarkets and car parking lots. If anti-war meetings became usual events on the lawn of the White House, then anti-weapon meetings at the time of Bush got their resonance. And again, business-lobby and public opinion are of absolutely different weights in the most democratic country of the world.
An acid test of Bush administration’s social assurance system became “a girl” name Katrina. The hurricane that struck on the eastern coast of the USA, has revealed not only disability of the White House to manage the emergencies in terms of assistance to its own population, but also disclosed many problems of social support, from insurance indemnity to the same Medicare. Inadequate assessments and complete failure, if the problem is not in the top priority list. After September 11, the Administration claimed that it is ready to manage any disaster. The Department of Homeland Security was established for this purpose. If fact politicians failed to keep their word. Katrina came by surprise. The people expected at least any aid for almost two weeks. Finally, 489 000 plaintiffs claimed for compensation of huge losses totaling three quadrillion Dollars (surely the claims were rejected). The Bush’s rating dropped down to 40 per cent.
A few words about the economy. Many people noticed the prevailing economic theme in the President address to the Congress. Bush failed to ignore the current crisis situation. Recently, even the European Union loudly raised a point of “the recession”. If the US economy gets cold, the whole world will sneeze. In this particular case, it is more expedient to speak about a cancer that threatens the whole world with intensive chemotherapy in the form of downturn in the leading economies, deceleration of consumer demand growth that would result in decline in production, massive job cuts, critical inflation rate and export crisis. Bush determined the situation as “a period of uncertainty” that nevertheless does not exclude economic growth, and requested 150 billion Dollars from the Congress to stimulate the consumption.
In the international arena, Bush hopes to go down in history due to conciliation between Israel and Palestine. He promises to convince the parties to sign a conciliation agreement before his term expires. However, even it happens, the agreement hardly survive longer than the agreements mediated by his predecessors. The “axis of evil” mentioned by Bush in his address to the nation six years ago remains his headache. North Korea is not going to abandon its nuclear weapon programme. The Bush’s stand with respect to the Iranian nuclear programme was affected by his own intelligence service hat published an estimate stating that Tehran ceased its R&D under the nuclear weapon prgramme a few years ago.
Finally, disclaiming any complete research of the George Bush’s “creative development” (albeit he was not expelled from the Oval Office) we may come to a conclusion that he will go down in history as a president who reinforced the positions of his state worldwide by aggressive propagation of “freedom and democracy”, as a president who selected a vector of economy development towards provision of external but not internal needs of the state, as a president whose large-scale political goals remained unachieved. For instance, he gravely failed in reforming the pension insurance likewise he did in establishing control over illegal migration. He is a president who became the least popular one in the US history. He is a president who succeeded in uniting the nation after September 11, 2001 better than anybody else, and who later split it as deeply as perhaps only the Vietnam War did it before.
