Tag: george w. bush

Bush Boasts About Waterboarding

Former President George W. Bush continues to be beyond shame. Those favored with an advance copy of his memoir, Decision Points, say it paints a picture of a totally unapologetic Bush bragging, for example, about authorizing the CIA to waterboard 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. According to newspaper accounts of the memoir, Bush says he … Continue reading “Bush Boasts About Waterboarding”

Obama Follows Bush on Iran

When Barack Obama was running for the presidency in 2008, he wanted, first and foremost, to differentiate himself from George W. Bush, who was despised by a large majority of people practically everywhere on this planet. Obama had opposed the invasion of Iraq, and during his campaign he continued to criticize the invasion and its … Continue reading “Obama Follows Bush on Iran”

Joe Biden and the False Iraq War Narrative

In an interview on the PBS NewsHour last Wednesday, Joe Biden was unwilling to contradict the official narrative of the Iraq War that Gen. David Petraeus and the Bush surge had turned Iraq into a good war after all. That interview serves as a reminder of just how completely the Democratic Party foreign policy elite … Continue reading “Joe Biden and the False Iraq War Narrative”

Assessing the Iraq War

As President Obama gave a self-congratulatory speech about keeping his campaign promise to remove U.S. combat forces from Iraq by the end of August, he accomplished this feat by merely redefining the mission of the 50,000 combat-trained U.S. forces remaining there to “advising and assisting” Iraqi forces. Of course, this really means that we are … Continue reading “Assessing the Iraq War”

New Rankings Overrate Obama

The periodic Siena College poll [.pdf] of 238 presidential scholars in colleges and universities across the nation ranked Barack Obama, after only a year-and-a-half of his presidency, as the 15th best president out of all 43 in American history. His predecessor, George W. Bush, earned an abysmal 39th rating. Yet, despite differences in rhetoric and … Continue reading “New Rankings Overrate Obama”

Buy This Book: The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s

A year and a half into the presidency of Barack Obama, any hopes that he would usher in a dramatic rethinking of U.S. foreign policy have been more or less definitively dashed. Notwithstanding the wild-eyed warnings of right-wing hawks who see Obama as “the first post-American president,” with a covert agenda that is part Saul … Continue reading “Buy This Book: The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s“

Taking Bush’s Preventive War Doctrine Underground (Sort Of)

Remember when Democrats and independents craved a less belligerent U.S. foreign policy that eschewed the aggressive preventive war doctrine of the George W. Bush administration? When Barack Obama took office, the atmospherics did seem to change as the new president promised to withdraw forces from Iraq and actually talk to unfriendly nations, such as Iran … Continue reading “Taking Bush’s Preventive War Doctrine Underground (Sort Of)”

Newest National Security Strategy an Elaboration of the Old

The Obama administration has at last issued its own National Security Strategy, a 52-page document that takes the place of the strategy statements published by the George W. Bush administration, beginning in 2002, notable for their belligerence in proclaiming America’s policy priority to be the “defeat” of “terrorism,” their assertion of unilateral pursuit of American … Continue reading “Newest National Security Strategy an Elaboration of the Old”

CIA Medics Honed Torture Techniques on Detainees, Group Charges

A major human rights organization claims it has uncovered evidence indicating that the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush conducted “illegal and unethical human experimentation” and research on detainees in CIA custody. The group, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), claims “the apparent experimentation and research appear to have been performed to provide legal … Continue reading “CIA Medics Honed Torture Techniques on Detainees, Group Charges”

To the Tea Party: War and Liberty Aren’t Fellow Travelers

In an astute op-ed piece in the Christian Science Monitor, James Bovard points out that the love of liberty by the Tea Party crowd usually takes a backseat to a hatred of President Obama and the Left. After attending a tax day Tea Party event in Rockville, Md., a suburb of the nation’s capital, Bovard … Continue reading “To the Tea Party: War and Liberty Aren’t Fellow Travelers”