What will be President Bush’s Dominant Legacy
$4 Trillion in National Debt (26%, 212 Votes)
War in Iraq and Afghanistan (48%, 391 Votes)
The Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp (26%, 216 Votes)
Total Voters: 819
Having already issued an executive order barring the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from using coercive interrogation tactics and created a plan that will seek to prosecute Guantanamo detainees in the United States, President Obama is taking steps to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, thereby undoing one of President Bush’s less popular legacies. At the same time Mr. Obama has been reluctant to remind Americans of his campaign promise to withdraw from Iraq in sixteen months—though he does stand by it—and has helped craft a second stimulus package, effectively admitting that the current recession thwarts the need for a balanced budget at the present. Therefore Mr. Bush’s longest lasting legacy, if not his “dominant” one, will be the national debt he racked up during the eight consecutive years of federal deficits that populated his two terms.
Still, it’s important to recognize that the three primary legacies of Mr. Bush—war in the middle east, a foreign prison for difficult to prosecute “enemy combatants,” and the debt inherent in sustained fighting overseas—are inseperable. For the seven years that it has been open, the American facility in Guantanemo has primarily functioned as a holding station for prisioners of war, and—acording to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joeseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes—the conflict in Iraq where many of those prisoners originated has come with a $3 trillion price tag.
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Bush’s legacy. I woudn’t go there.
Ya, Guantanemo will be gone in a year. War will be over in 3. Debt will remain.
What about 9/11? How do you reckon that’ll work in?
Don’t forget Bush’s intimidation and even jailing of Border Patrol agents facilitated the biggest wave of illegal immigration (from one country) in the history of the U.S. MS13, 17% of the federal prison population and the racist Latino caucus thank him. That legacy is permanent.
You’re all wrong!
Unfortunately, the facts are different. Obama DID say no to “torture” but in the order he can approve it if needed. Gitmo will be closed but the countries those people came from won’t take them back so they’ll stay in US custody. And the spending bill that just went through cost taxpayers more than Iraq and Afganistan.
As an avid reader of your blog, I am very disappointed that you have not updated it in such a long time. Maybe you should cut down on the Seinfeld/Office/Radiohead/urban outfitters time and write something about Obama’s new budget!!!
Muchas gracias.
Don’t worry; Killer Buffalo is on a temporary hiatus. The staff will return at the end of March, and from then on we will have five posts per week. With our high posting frequency and lengthy analytical posts, we look to better compete with the big names in economic and political analysis.