April 26, 2013 6:33 AM

A George Bush Library is like an Adolf Hitler Synagogue

The five living presidents will meet in Texas…to dedicate the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. And while Bush and his aides are using the occasion to soften the 43 president’s image and solidify his legacy, a recounting of Bush-era policies — from his deregulation of Wall Street to the invasion of Iraq — greatly undermine the new rosy narrative of the Bush years.

Yeah, I know; every former President raises money to build a library with their name on it…something about preserving their legacy and all. George W. Bush is no different in this respect, except that students and faculty at Southern Methodist University in Dallas were united in opposition to it. They didn’t want the library of a President associated with failure, incompetence, and an immoral war at SMU…and who can blame them? With the dedication of the Bush Library this week, it seems the whitewashing of the Bush legacy is gathering steam. It’s as disgusting as it disingenuous and dishonest. Unfortunately, the propaganda appears to be working: 54% of Americans rate Bush’s presidency higher today than when he left office.

Americans have a short memory…and they too often can’t be bothered to pay attention.

If justice truly existed, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © wouldn’t be getting a library with his name on it. He’d be sitting in a cell in The Hague in the midst of a war crimes trial. Approximately 5,000 young American servicemen and women died in Iraq, with thousands more injured and/or maimed. While there’s some disagreement over the number of Iraqis killed during the war in Iraq, most authoritative estimates put the number at around 100,000. Bush’s war was built on lies, propaganda, and deception, which resulted in almost unimaginable death, destruction,and suffering- all to satisfy what was evidently a personal grudge against Saddam Hussein.

Barack Obama had an opportunity to allow justice to be done, but he decided that he wanted to look forward. That decision allowed a free pass to a President arguably guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Instead, a disturbing precedent was set: When an American President does it, it’s not terrorism, nor can it called war crimes or crimes against humanity. It’s the Nixonian ideal: If a President does it, it’s by definition legal. The Worst President EVER ©, responsible as he is for thousands upon thousands of death, should be defending himself before a war crimes tribunal. Instead he gets a library. Evidently Justice really IS blind.

Instead of facing judgment for mass murder, Captain Codpiece © is being feted and celebrated as his library opens. It sickens me…and though I love my country, I find myself at this moment ashamed to be an American.

In an effort to introduce a measure of honesty back into the effort to whitewash Bush’s legacy, Think Progress offers 13 Reasons To BE Glad Bush Is No Longer President:

  1. Authorized the use of torture

  2. Politicized climate science

  3. Ignored Afghanistan to launch a war in Iraq

  4. Botched the response to Hurricane Katrina

  5. Defunded stem cell research

  6. Required Muslim men to register with the government

  7. Reinstated the global gag rule

  8. Supported anti-gay discrimination

  9. Further deregulated Wall Street

  10. Widened income inequality

  11. Undermined worker protections

  12. Ideological court appointments

  13. Presided over a dysfunctional executive branch

The Bush years saw the use of the Supreme Court to steal a Presidential election. It saw the triumph of Right-wing hyper religiosity over governance. It saw the erosion of our civil rights and the suppression of dissent. It saw the reality that America in fact DOES torture. It saw an increased disdain for the poor and the degrading of the social contract. In short, Americans treated themselves to eight years of a President who catered to the moneyed elite and established this country as an international bully who holds itself to different standards than we expect of the rest of the world.

George W. Bush presided over eight divisive years of Amerika über Alles, the idea that the U.S., by virtue of its overwhelming military superiority, could use force as an instrument of foreign policy. He should never again see the light of day as a free man. Instead, the media is beginning the process of lionizing him as a prescient, heroic leader.

I’m sickened by our collective inability to recognize, much less remember the truth of The Reign of Error ©

Somewhere warm and breezy, Niccolò Machiavelli is snickering into his Corona….

Fortunately, history is written by historians, who in most cases can be counted on to be objective observers. I suspect history will not be kind to Captain Codpiece © and will in fact remember him as The Worst President EVER ©…and deservedly so. If we can’t have justice, at least we should be able to expect historical honesty and perspective.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library will open to the public on May 1st, the 10-year anniversary of the “Mission Accomplished” speech on the deck of the USS Lincoln in San Diego harbor. That’s either an inside joke or a big “f—- you” to the American public. I have no idea which.

WE DESERVE BETTER.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on April 26, 2013 6:33 AM.

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