November 19, 2007

Bottom 10: The Bush Administration’s Worst Mistakes

 

The Bush Administration’s impending final year should be a time for taking stock – for many Americans and others a painful process. Since the writers’ strike has deprived us of our Top 10 Lists, we might satisfy several needs at once by attempting to list the 10 worst errors of the Bush Administration to date.

 

The choice is not easy. Polarization creates the risk of ideological differences blurring genuine mistakes. We want to focus on actions that the administration itself might deem errors in their heart of hearts – what the president might even confess as such to Laura, Barney or perhaps even himself, in a rare moment of clarity and humility. At least they should be evident to George Sr.

 

So here they are: The 10 most egregious blunders of this administration, according to me:

 

#10 – The Dick Cheney Friend-Shoot: This makes the list partly for entertainment value (for non-victims). It does symbolize the administration’s arrogant incompetence against defenseless birds and friends. And everyone loved seeing the VP do something wrong he couldn’t rationalize away.

 

#9 – Denying Global Warming and Other Environmental Problems: No administration in history has been more anti-science, and/or more overtly political in its disposition. The blatant altering of scientific data by industry plants not only puts the planet at risk, but also demonstrates the real nature of those in power.

 

#8 - Outing of Valerie Plame: This seemed the height of arrogance, even for the “We can do whatever we please and get away with it” administration. In some countries, outing covert spies is considered treason. By the way, why wasn’t Robert Novak ever charged?

 

#7 - Insistence on Elections in Gaza: They led to Hamas’ dominance, a virtual civil war with Fatah and a halt to Middle East peace efforts. Our folks were warned but didn’t listen, instead clinging to their notion of how things ought to be. This specific error compounded the consequences of our abandonment of this region, when a constructive approach might have helped. 

 

#6 - The Deficit: This result of large tax cuts for the wealthy and enormous defense spending severely weakens our economy and social sector. It exacerbates the danger of recession and inflation, and puts our currency stability at the mercy of the Chinese and others to keep their growing dollar reserves.

 

#5 – Firing of U.S. Attorneys: Besides being, or at least bordering on, obstruction of justice (which doesn’t necessarily make it a mistake for this administration), this scandal exposed its level of politicization. Is nothing off limits – even the integrity of our justice system?

 

#4 - Response to Katrina: “Brownie, You’re doing a helluva job.” These words will live forever in American political cartoon history. They symbolize the flip and out-of-touch manner of the president and administration during this crisis and exposed deep race and class bias in our system. There was progress in their response to recent wildfires in California – of course nothing to do with many victims (and the governor) being well-to-do Republicans.

 

#3 – Afghanistan: This is largely the result of numbers one and two, but clearly merits its own listing. Taking our eye off the ball in the country that, more than any other, gave us 9/11, has allowed the bad guys to come back in force, along with the poppy growers – now more U.S.-resistant than ever. Remember Tora Bora!

 

#2 – Iraq Implementation: Having made the decision early on to make it happen (see #1), the administration actively ignored data about the culture and politics of the country that even Cheney used to know, and made every possible blunder in carrying out the operation – disbanding the Iraqi army (which the great Decider doesn’t remember deciding), ignoring the potential insurgency, et al. The rigid adherence to preconceptions in the face of contradictory data will alter cognitive dissonance theory forever.

 

#1 – Iraq Decision: The Iraq War may be the worst foreign policy blunder in our history. It still isn’t clear exactly how early on this decision was made, or precisely why, since all the expressed reasons have proven false. Launching a war that could never be won at a time when Saddam was boxed in by the UN and losing power is inexplicable. That single stroke cost us the support and respect of the international community and the great sympathy we had gained from the 9/11 attacks, and weakened us militarily and politically, probably for years to come.

 

This list isn’t as funny as David Letterman’s. In fact, it’s much too serious. I hope the writers come back soon. And there may be differences. A thorough discussion on the relative severity of this administration’s many errors will be a welcome aspect of the coming campaign.