This Commentary magazine article by Peter Wehner suggests that history will vindicate George Bush. I don't know about that. History, at least if one means the version that is known and believed by the public, is frequently shallow, distorted and sometimes ridiculously wrong. Look at how Ronald Reagan has been misjudged and his achievements unappreciated (often unreported altogether) by writers of "history," whereas iconographic treatments of the undeserving FDR and JFK still dominate the bookstalls and the public perception.No, in the leftist, post-modern culture in which we now live, popular history (the kind that gets talked about on TV, taught in the classrooms, and repeated in the press) will never be fair to conservative causes or heroes.
But that doesn't mean one shouldn't stand up and fight for the right things...always.
With all that said, I still recommend Wehner's article. It is thoughtful, fact-based and refreshingly different from the tsunami of Obama adulation which is overwhelming us today.
As George W. Bush spends his last few hours as President, many of us who worked for him and deeply admire him are filled with mixed feelings. It is hard to see him leave the scene with approval ratings hovering at 30 percent, with the nation clearly weary and ready to turn the page. All of us hoped he would leave the Presidency with an outpouring of gratitude and affection from the nation.
It was not to be, and it would be silly and misleading to pretend that this did not matter at all. How could it not? Yet most of us have the conviction — a fairly deep one, actually — that President Bush will be looked upon by history favorably and that his decisions will be, in the main, vindicated. The obvious question concerns what we see that most of our fellow citizens do not. Why are we convinced that Bush’s presidency will be judged a success when so many people right now consider it to be a failure?..
Second, George W. Bush’s unpopularity created the context for what I believe was easily his most impressive act as President: his advocacy of the surge despite the enormous opposition to it. People forget what many of us in the White House at the time never will: the across-the-board resistance — from all Democrats, most Republicans, the entire foreign policy establishment, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President’s own commanding general in Iraq, and the overwhelming majority of Americans — to the surge. There was the very real sense that this plan might be strangled in its crib...
To have seen President Bush hold shape in the midst of such white-hot political heat and cascading criticisms is something those of us who served him can never forget. We understood — or should have understood — what an extraordinary act this was. It will one day rank among the most important and impressive decisions ever made by an American president. The outcome of a war rested on it...
Fourth, many of Bush’s achievements — from vindication on his stance on embyronic stem cell research, to his sweeping and successful reforms in education, to his unprecedented efforts to help the continent of Africa, to his enormously successful Medicare prescription drug plan, to promoting anti-drug policies that led to a 25 percent reduction in drug use, to much else — have been occluded or largely ignored. But as the waters calm in the coming years, these things will be seen for what they are...
Having said all this, I am the first to admit that I am not entirely objective when it comes to George W. Bush. I don’t consider him flawless; far from it. I have seen his foibles up close, and I can list the things we did wrong or could have done better over the course of eight years in my sleep. He’s leaving the stage to a whole lot less applause than I would have thought just a few years ago.
At the same time, George W. Bush turned out to be one of the gutsiest politicians of our lifetime. He showed a ferocious commitment in pursuing his main duty: protecting our country. His memories of 9/11 and the wound it inflicted on America did not dim, even for a day, even for a moment. He mobilized this nation for war — and when others lost interest and their commitment to the struggle began to fade, his would not. President Bush knew what to stand for, and what to stand against. He is a man of enormous personal decency and integrity. And he ended up with all the right people hating him, from Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Frank Rich and Keith Olbermann.
President Bush has spent eight years in the arena. He has been harshly criticized and bloodied along the way. But as things got harder, he got better — and when things were hardest, he did best. Having faced crises of enormous dimensions, he leaves the presidency unbroken and at peace. He served his nation well and with honor. That is what matters, and that is what will endure.
Godspeed, George Walker Bush.
