Bush’s real legacy

In response to Justin Hill’s Jan. 21 op-ed column “Hello, Goodbye”:

First, I commend the cooperative attitude that Mr. Hill encourages conservatives take toward the Barack Obama White House.

That is a positive position, and I applaud Mr. Hill for taking it.

However, it would be irresponsible not to take issue with Mr. Hill’s defense of former President Bush. Mr. Hill writes, “former President Bush protected this country after Sept. 11.” But at what cost? How much of “this country” do we even have left when its constitution – the document that supposedly determines what this country is – gets repeatedly violated and suspended in the name of security?

Also, when Mr. Hill writes that, thanks to Bush, “freedom has come to over 60 million people across the world,” I assume that by “freedom” he really means that we have brought “democracy” to Iraq and Afghanistan.

But even the term “democracy” is a stretch here. Iraq may have an elected government, but American mismanagement of the war has also plunged that country into a civil war that radically undermines the authority of that government. I suppose that, in a sense, people do have to be “free” to engage in civil war, but that hardly makes Iraq one of Bush’s success stories.

Even Bush admitted that hanging the “Mission Accomplished” banner was a mistake.

Mr. Hill’s hyperbolic rhetoric defends a president who has led our country into two questionable wars and a severe financial crisis.

That’s the Bush legacy.

Adam Fajardo
IU graduate student