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Shop Talk: Tuesday, August 9

August 9, 2011, 6:21 am

By Lawrence Biemiller

Shaw U. temporary facilitiesA temporary kitchen and other modular units will serve meals to Shaw U. students while repairs to the university’s dining hall continue. It was damaged by an April 16 tornado that ripped across the campus. (Shaw U. photo)

• After Cleaning Up Tornado Damage, Shaw U. Prepares for a Fall Semester

• U. of California at Berkeley Will Test ‘Active Learning’ Classrooms

• Marymount College Expansion Plan Faces 180 Conditions Set by Local Officials

• Volunteer Vows to Tame Property Left to Clark College as an Arboretum

 

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  • tom27

    I hope none of the anti-Bush commentators below are academics, because their remarks, particularly on Bush’s invasion of Iraq, display a painful ignorance. In 2008, the first compilation of translations from Saddam’s secret police showed a level of involvement with world terrorism which justified the invasion of Iraq far more than an invasion of Afghanistan. Saddam funded, supplied and trained most of the terror networks throughout the world, including affiliates of Al Qaeda. Typically, The New York Times devoted two paragraphs in the back pages to the story but they didn’t refute the facts of the findings.

    Afghanistan was merely Osama’s landlord, charging rent to allow him to stay. Iraq was using his oil money to keep terrorist entities alive throughout the world. When doing battle with a stateless enemy, controlling real estate is less important than going after the bankers. 

    We have stupidly abandoned Iraq too early, possibly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and certainly making any reaction to Iranian nuclear weaponry – whether a peaceful or belligerent reaction – infinitely more difficult. Meanwhile, we will stay mired in Afghanistan uselessly, spending blood and treasure just to prop up the election chances of the current occupant of the White House.

    The stupidity of the political and media elites is the direct result of America’s academic elites. America produces the stupidest smart people in the world. It doesn’t have to be that way.

  • Synopticist

    In foreign policy terms, the period 2000-2008 would be best desribed as “the Vice-Presidency of Dick Cheney”.
     There was a week (i think) in 2004, when things were slipping out of control in Iraq, we Brits sent a high powered delegation to Washington to try to get some sort of grip over events on the ground. This was supposedly highly planned and co-ordinated. Tony Blair sat on George. The British foreing secretary spoke to Colin Powell,( or Maybe it was Rice) the defence secretatry to Donald Rumsfeld (?), the MI6 bloke spoke to the head of the CIA. They thought they’d covered all the bases.The delegation left, extremelly satisfied, thinking they’d got what they wanted, more decisive, political coalition control over the slowly unfolding chaos in Iraq.

    A few weeks went by, and the US annouced a totally different policy to the one Tony Blair thought he’d squared with Bush. It was described as “coming from a completelly unexpected direction.” It was Cheney who had made the key decision, and he’d been basically ignored by the Brits.

     These guys were top British politicians and intel people. They thought they truly understood US politics, and in a sense they were right. Had it been Obama, Clinton, Bush the Elder, Reagan or even Carter, there was no way a highly powered delegation, on a matter of such foeign policy  importance, would have needed to speak to Mr Vice. Why bother with a pitcher of warm spit?

    But this was President  ”W”, and he wasn’t the guy who made Iraqi policy..

    Now i cant remember all the details of this visit, or even the year it took place, but i’m sure the author of this book knows the event i’m referring to.

     Bush wasn’t stupid, or particularly wicked, but he was LAZY,and that meant he gave his subordinates too much power. Cheney over foreign affairs and taxes, Rove over domestic policy, Rumsfeld in Iraq, ( not to mention Paul Bremer, what a lightwieght), FEMA, the SEC, the list goes on. Delegation is one thing, but it was Bush who had the ultimate responsibility for the poor decisions made by his delegates, and to be a great leader, you need the grit and determination to steer them in the right direction, and the grip to keep them there.

    The relentless demamds of a high powered political job in the 21st century are like little else. 
      Bush just wasn’t willing to keep his nose to the grindstone, put in the hard hours, and just WORK DAM**D HARD for 8 years. How can a guy spend 3 months on the ranch every year, and go to bed at 9.pm, while still being a great President?

  • stefanstackhouse

    I don’t know if W was the absolute worst President, but he has clearly earned a place in the bottom tier.

    I was suckered once by the lies about a “humble foreign policy” and “compassionate conservativism”, but I sure wasn’t suckered twice. The man was an absolute disaster for the nation, and I don’t know if we’ll ever recover from the damage he caused.

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