Quit blaming Bush!!

[Rich Weese]

We're in a financial meltdown,imo and we keep hearing about that rotten Bush and the spending on Iraq war.
When will current pres start taking some responsibility for his part in our mess? According to the CBO, here are the #'s.

Iraq war- 6 1/2 yrs of war= 709Billion (partially Bush)
stimulous bill= 862 billion (all current pres.)
Gee, pres should take some responsibility for our debt, as well as his added spending on "his" choice of war , Afghanistan. Of course, his promise on reduction in unemployment went well also. Blame the failure of stimulous on Bush?

Any chance that pres gives Bush credit for Surge, or the democracy (albeit fragile) rising in Iraq tonite? Rich

[Vikram C.]

Well, I think Bush was a pretty lousy president although he was not responsible for the real estate bubble or the subsequent recession.

As far as the Iraq war, I think he was fully responsible for it, not just partly. I think that war was a huge waste of taxpayer's money. I have no interest in seeing my money spent on democracy or any other form of government in Iraq. They were not a threat to us so why waste our money on them?

Afghanistan, on the other hand, was different. That's where a lot of the terrorist training camps were being run. But the war there has been a disaster and the terrorist training has shifted to other places. I think we are much better at going to a country and defeating its government than in controlling the country afterwards or rebuilding it into some kind of civilized place. These are not Germans or Japanese and they are not easily amenable to our way of thinking. So a better strategy for us would be to periodically use overwhelming force in places suspected of harboring terrorists and then getting out of there. A bit like fighting infections with antibiotics. It is not a perfect solution but neither is the current one.

Regarding the stimulus, Bush and Obama get equal blame. Bush got started with the Tarp stuff and Obama continued it with even greater vigor. This shows the power of the lobbying groups in Washington more than anything else. Neither president has been a big believer in free markets and small government. In the case of Obama, this has not been a surprise. Bush was both surprising and disappointing.