Readers React: Why the George W. Bush presidency failed

To the editor: The underlying flaw in the George W. Bush presidency was that he was living in the past. (“It’s not too soon to judge George W. Bush’s presidency on key issues,” Op-Ed, Feb. 5)

Many policy decisions imagined we were living in a time when America’s manufacturing-based economy could produce jobs and widespread prosperity if a major tax cut were passed, or the mere threat of an invasion by U.S. forces would cause most countries to fall to their knees and do our bidding. It was as if Vietnam and the outsourcing of jobs or the information economy hadn’t happened.

Many of Bush’s policies may well have worked in an earlier time. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking still pervades much of the political landscape. Sorry, but it’s not 1950 any more.

Michael Gitter, Pacific Palisades

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To the editor: It’s about time that someone published what many Americans thought at the time and continue to think today: Bush was a disaster. His legacy will be a stain upon the United States for generations to come.

Bush didn’t act on the warnings of the previous administration about terror threats, and the 9/11 attacks happened on his watch. He attacked the wrong country after 9/11 and allowed Osama bin Laden to escape.

He ran up the debt to astronomical figures by not putting the costs of two wars on the books. He destroyed any credibility the United States had as being “the good guys” with the revelations of Abu Ghraib and his administration’s embrace of torture. Countless lives of American soldiers and foreign civilians were lost or damaged in vain.

No, it’s not too soon to judge. It’s far, far too late.

Scott W. Hughes, Westlake Village

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