Would your opinion on Bush would've been different if......

[Kadagar_AV]

Clinton was actually a relatively good president by American standards and since Hillary is more the brains of that operation, I think Hilary next might be a good call [cut]...

President Clinton was the only president in my life time that I somewhat respected and thought rather well of. Sex scandal aside, and starting a war to confuse it all, he was quite capable, and most definitely a gifted individual.

HILLARY Clinton on the other side.... Wow... What a woman.

When it comes to rhetorics, she is sharper than a razor, and she has a HUGE amount of respect internationally... Probably more so than any other living American, Chuck Norris and the astronauts going to the moon aside.

There are quite few women I openly admire, specially in politics. hillary Clinton however is one.



As to Bush... Meh.

I think it's unfair to talk about his pros and cons... As he was simply a puppet without any will of his own. A guy with normal intelligence and normal but rich background who's familys ties got him the job. No more, but also no less.

A tool, in the exact meaning of the word - as well as the popular meaning.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

President Clinton was the only president in my life time that I somewhat respected and thought rather well of. Sex scandal aside, and starting a war to confuse it all, he was quite capable, and most definitely a gifted individual.

HILLARY Clinton on the other side.... Wow... What a woman.

When it comes to rhetorics, she is sharper than a razor, and she has a HUGE amount of respect internationally... Probably more so than any other living American, Chuck Norris and the astronauts going to the moon aside.

There are quite few women I openly admire, specially in politics. hillary Clinton however is one.



As to Bush... Meh.

I think it's unfair to talk about his pros and cons... As he was simply a puppet without any will of his own. A guy with normal intelligence and normal but rich background who's familys ties got him the job. No more, but also no less.

A tool, in the exact meaning of the word - as well as the popular meaning.

Europe has no votes in the electoral college. If they somehow had had such votes, it is a safe bet that they would be only slightly more likely to end up on the GOP candidate than those of Washington DC.

Europe might have picked Nixon over McGovern....the last GOP guy the Euros truly liked was Ike (prior to Suez at least), who was the quintessential big government Republican.

[Fragony]

He made mistakes, but I think I would probably have made the same mstakes if I was in charge, so I don't really have the right to judge him. Let's look at it over 20 years or so.

[The Lurker Below]

The Bush family reminds me of the movie Twins with DeVito and Schwarzenegger. Little George is DeVito, Jeb is Arnold. American's are so pro at politics we chose humor for our leader.

[Strike For The South]

Does it really matter?

No matter who sits in the oval office, the yoke around the yeomans neck grows tighter every year.

All good things, I suppose

[Papewaio]

If 9/11 happened but all the resources were thrown into Afghanistan then Bush would have had far more international support and post presidency good will (which translates into $$$ on the speaking circuit).

It might even be possible that Afghanistan might be on its way to being the next Nepal rather then the next Syria, Somalia or Iraq.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

If 9/11 happened but all the resources were thrown into Afghanistan then Bush would have had far more intentional support and post presidency good will (which translates into $$$ on the speaking circuit).

It might even be possible that Afghanistan might be on its way to being the next Nepal rather then the next Syria, Somalia or Iraq.

Possible, but still long odds. Shifting it to a Nepal would have required a decades-long occupation and transition to self-governance.

[Pannonian]

If 9/11 happened but all the resources were thrown into Afghanistan then Bush would have had far more intentional support and post presidency good will (which translates into $$$ on the speaking circuit).

It might even be possible that Afghanistan might be on its way to being the next Nepal rather then the next Syria, Somalia or Iraq.

My preference at the time, having accepted that the US needed to take action to demonstrate that it wasn't to be sniped at without consequence, was for a big noise punitive-style strike, followed by leasing out the war to reasonably friendly local agents. If another OBL-type figure arose as a result, it would be unfortunate, but you can't entirely control these things, and shifting funding to another faction would effectively take care of this. Britain never completely had Afghanistan under its control during the Great Game, and I don't see any other foreign power ever doing so either. The USSR probably had the best chance, and we know what happened there.