Decision Points is an honest account of pivotal situations that shaped George Bush’s Presidency. It reveals a lot of emotional sentiment as well. The book’s most interesting merit, however, is how, in context of other books, it debunks all of the myths perpetrated by the haters of this fine President.
The foremost myth is that GWB waged war in Iraq on cherry-picked intelligence. The truth is that there was bipartisan consensus before Bush took office that Saddam was a threat for many reasons, WMDs only one. Regime change in Iraq was official U.S. policy as early as 1998, as indicated by the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.
Bush quotes only a few of the scores of comments made by President Clinton, his cabinet members and many democrat senators who made clear that regime change in Iraq was a must – even if use-of-force was necessary.
In fact, the use of force authorization was handed to President Bush by a senate controlled by democrats. Both houses of Congress examined the same intelligence as President Bush, and the UN resolution authorizing regime change in Iraq was a unanimous 15 to 0.
Next there are the myths surrounding torture and the allegations that the President committed war crimes by acting upon rogue counsel. Although these fantasies persist even after the ruling in Pierre v. Attorney General of the United States, (2008,) and after Eric Holder’s 2009 acknowledgement that waterboarding is not torture, they have been reduced to typical anti-war sentiment that roils on the Cindy Sheehan fringe.
Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress for fours years with a democrat Executive at the helm for half of that time. If they thought waterboarding is a war crime, why didn’t they outlaw it? Two years into the Obama presidency, both rendition and EIT’s are still legal and available for use.
Then there was all the hysteria about Joe Wilson and the outing of his wife, Valerie Plame. We now know from the Senate Select Intelligence Committee report of July, 2004, that Wilson lied about his junket to Niger. We have also since learned that Plame was not a covert CIA operative and that Scooter Libby did not reveal her identity. Between these and countless other internal plots to embarrass the President, and sabotage his efforts in Iraq, (e.g. the duplicitous and debunked claims by General Anthony Zinni, that Vice President, Dick Cheney, lied about Saddam’s nuclear aspirations,) we get a sense that President Bush was not only fighting a global war on terror to keep America safe, but was also fighting the hidden conflict that was being waged by the “Shadow Warriors” within.
Allegations that President Bush made end-runs around FISA to implement a lawless Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP,) are also shown to be myths. Not only did both the Justice Department and the White House counsel’s office agree that the TSP could be used on enemies in war under the constitutional war resolution and the constitutional authority of the commander in chief, but Presidents Lincoln, Wilson and FDR all conducted similar surveillance by way of the same presidential and constitutional authority.
Also, President Bush acted on Jim Comey’s, Robert Mueller’s, and others’ advice to “modify the part of the program they found problematic.” The book also puts to rest the claim by Jack Goldsmith, the Administration’s head of the Office of Legal Counsel, that the Administration “wanted to leave the presidency stronger than when they assumed office.”
“I was willing to defend the powers of the Presidency under Article II,” Bush writes. “But not at any cost.” (p. 173.)
The myth that President Bush botched the response to Katrina is also debunked with a simple photo caption. “I urged Louisiana officials to federalize the response to Katrina, but Governor Blanco refused.” The anachronistic claims that Blanco made several years later (November, 2010,) are not only irrelevant, but also demonstrate that Blanco had the authority to both impede and contradict Administration efforts and to refuse federal aid. The picture is worth a thousand words.
The stories about a stagnant economy and increases in debt are shown to be examples of typical media malpractice. Such myths conveniently ignored 17 strait quarters of economic growth after 9/11 and the bursting of the tech bubble. During the Bush Administration, America had one of the fastest growing economies in the world, historically low unemployment rates and the longest trend of job growth in American history, according to Economist Magazine. Deficits under Bush, as a percentage of GDP, were lower than the average over the past 30 years. The practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the main reason for the housing bubble. Bush tried to reign in these dangerous practices at least three times, but was stopped by democrats.
Democrats turned the term, “tax-cuts-for-the-rich” into a household phrase. But the truth is that the Bush tax cuts for high-income earners sparked a strong economy that enabled many people to enter higher tax brackets themselves. As a result, the total percentage of the tax burden on top earners went from the average 76 percent in the early 1990s to the 86 percent of the tax burden that we have today. Also, disposable income grew under Bush 5.2 percent every year after 9/11.
There are many other myths making the rounds that were too insignificant for the former President to mention. For example, the complaints about his signing statements. Signing statements is a practice that predated the Bush White House and has continued since. Other rumors are that former Army Chief of Staff, General Eric Shinseki and Goldsmith were pushed from their positions because they dared to question the President, even though no Army chief of staff has served longer than four years since WWII, and both Attorney General, John Ashcroft and White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales wanted Goldsmith to stay on at the Office of Legal Counsel. Also, the claims on the part of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh Shelton, that President Bush and Dick Cheney lied us into the war in Iraq are spurious at best. Gen Shelton retired less than a month after 9/11 and therefore would not have had any first hand knowledge regarding the use-of-force resolution.
As the cacophony of hateful mythmakers morph into fading echoes on the fringe, the unsullied and historical image of President George W. Bush, will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of his small-minded detractors, and be upheld as a Great American President. Monuments to his honor will be raised in both Africa and Iraq. Who knows, his image might one day even be etched into Mount Rushmore.
