From Caroline Glick:
A couple of days ago I heard the news that George and Laura Bush paid a private visit to the wounded soldiers at Fort Hood. They specifically requested that the base commander not inform the media of their visit. They came. They comforted the wounded soldiers and the Fort Hood community for a couple of hours. And then they left. And they never had their pictures taken saluting the troops or holding their hands.
When I heard the news, I felt this pain that hasn't gone away. It's a pain that I have been feeling fairly often since last November.
It hurts to hear about an American President who cares deeply and sincerely about wounded soldiers and soldiers murdered in a terrorist attack and know that he is not the American President. It isn't so much that I miss Bush personally. I had a lot of criticism about his policies - particularly in his last two years in office after he effectively abdicated his leadership of global affairs to Condoleezza Rice and the permanent bureaucracy in Washington.
But at least you always knew that Bush loved America and that he loved Americans. You knew that he valued America's allies even if he didn't always do right by them. You knew that his values were American values.
6 comments:
Wondering how the wounded felt when their former CIC and First Lady came quietly to their bedsides while their present CIC hadn't even bothered to show up on base yet. I have a lot of problems with Bush, but he has never failed to show his personal support for our military.
He certainly blew it by not completely identifying the enemy to the nation, and rallying the nation to that enemy (among other problems).
But no one can ever fault his heart, and his actions in support of that.
Well said, Epa. I think Bush did the very best he could do. Even when he, as you say, abdicated foreign policy to Rice and the State Dept. it was merely because he saw that he couldn't actually effect the change he wanted, because he lost the political capital to push change.
I know it sounds like a lame excuse, and perhaps I should not give it to him, but it seemed pretty obvious to me.
I put the time Bush lost his Presidency specifically at the end of the Israel/Lebanon war of 2006. If you recall, Bush was all but ordering Israel to take the war to Syria, repeating over and over in the media that Hizbollah and Lebanon were puppets of Syria and Iran.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2934
I believe Bush saw the Israel/Lebanon war as an opportunity to widen the theater, and use the U.S. advantage of having Iran surrounded (with American troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan).
Alas, Olmert pulled out of Lebanon.
After that, Bolton left, and the wind went out of Bush's sails.
Very sad.
OT, but is anyone else having problems with the Big Hollywood site? I thought I was imagining it, but every time I go over there now the computer freezes if I try to open anything.
It's working fine for me.
Recently I switched over to the Firefox browser, and everything has been smooth sailing since then.
I had lots of trouble with Safari and IE.
I often criticized the GWB administration, even though I twice voted for GWB.
That said, I find myself wishing for the GWB administration again now. That yearning scares me, and I'm fearless.
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