“Rarely in the history of the United States has the nation been so
ill-served as during the presidency of George W. Bush,” wrote the book opening
remarks.
This book tells Bush’s story from his youth, his time at schools and
university, his professional career as well as political career.
This book also shows foreign policy of America was not in good hands
under Bush administration, especially the global war that he declared post
9/11.
No wonder indeed, during the presidential election, George W. Bush once
expressed his interest in the presidency and confessed his lack of knowledge
about foreign affairs.
In chapter 9, under the title “Asleep at the Switch”, the story tells
how Bush was so relax prior to the 9/11 terrorist attack that shocked not only
America but the entire world. It was several times that his intelligence unit a.k.a.
CIA warned him about potential threat, but he was too reluctant to respond it
seriously.
At the beginning of August, Bush and his wife, Laura, went to Crawford
to spend a month at the ranch. This was the longest presidential vacation. At
the ranch, he awoke everyday at 5:45, went to kitchen to make coffee, took his
dogs outside to relieve themselves. While enjoying coffee he read newspapers,
afterward he jogged, got a shower and changed of clothes, then started his
daily intelligence briefing from the CIA.
Until 9/11, the Bush White House showed little interest in Al Qaeda or
Osama Bin Laden. The White House even maintained that Iraqi terrorist threat
was even greater. The CIA already reported that Bin Laden wanted to hijack U.S
aircraft, however any warning about this always be declined.
On September 11th, when Bush was at Elementary School in
Sarasota, Florida, while he was reading a story about The Pet Goat to students,
his White House Chief of Staff stepped into the room and whispered into his ear
about the planes that hit the WTC Twin Tower in New York. America was under
attack.
The next chapters of the book tell about how Bush made a decision to
strike Afghanistan to destroy Al Qaeda and capture Bin Laden. But, after the
fall of Kabul, Bush decided to invade Iraq as he believed that Saddam Hussein
possessed WMD. Despite challenges from many parties, he was adamant. “I am the
commander. I don’t need to explain. I don’t feel like I owe anybody an
explanation,” he said.
The WMD was never found in Iraq despite Saddam Hussein was overthrown,
Bin Laden was never be captured during Bush presidency but later during Barack
Obama’s.
Bush was re-elected as the president in 2005, however during his second
term, his approval rating was declined deeply as written in chapter 18 “Perils
of a second term”.
The biography written by Jean Edward Smith, a professor emeritus at the
University of Toronto and a visiting scholar at several prominent universities
in America.
In the closing remark, he wrote, “Whether George W. Bush was the worst
president in American history will be long debated, but his decision to invade
Iraq is easily the worst foreign policy decision ever made by an American
president.”
***
Serpong, 21
Jul 2023
Titus J.
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