About that credit history ...

President Bush has been making a point yesterday and today of reiterating his intent to veto any supplemental spending bill Congress sends him which isn't a "clean" bill. Reports indicate Congress plans to send a bill which merely sets as a "goal" beginning a withdrawal in Oct. 2007, with the majority out by the end of Mar. 2008, although there is no defined penalty for failing to meet these aims, but even that appears to be too much for "the decider" to decide to swallow.

Now, when you and I consistently fail to include major expenses in our budget, like, say, a war, and we find ourselves needing to go ask someone for more money, there is a typically a need to demonstrate some minimal level of responsibility and history of good decision-making before any funds are offered to us.

What, exactly, has the President done to merit such consideration?

His history of decision making is nearly universally disastrous. Here are just a few of the high points.

* Opted to prefer the intelligence provided by questionable Iraqi expatriates such as Ahmed Chalabi and cherry-picked intel from the group Douglas Feith set up at the Pentagon rather than than the analysis provided by groups such as the CIA.

* Ok'd disbanding the Iraqi army, leading to large numbers of unemployed young men and a lack of a core around which to build an Iraqi security force.

* Ok'd a plan to remove all Ba'athists from any role in the Iraqi government. Since membership in the party was a near requirement for an Iraqi civil servant prior to the invasion, this meant nearly the entire civilian infrastructure needed to be replaced. Most Iraqi civil servants were members "of convenience" rather than true Ba'athists.

* OK'd an invasion using the Rumsfeld doctrine rather than the Powell doctrine, leading to having fewer forces in Iraq for the occupation than were necessary. This led to the start of looting and riots, which helped kick off the insurgency, which continues today . The best time to have nipped this was in the bud, with an overwhelming number of troops in the country.

* Oversaw the granting of numerous "no-bid" reconstruction projects to companies which had political ties to his administration. Billions of dollars lost and unaccounted for. Iraq today isn't exactly known for it's improved infrastructure.

* No apparent planning for what might be necessary in the aftermath of the invasion.


I could go on, but is more really needed? The point is, on nearly every vital "decision" to be made, the President has made the wrong choice. Yes, hindsight is easy, but many people predicted the eventual results at the time decisions were being made. Even if that weren't the case, however, the President is weighed on the results of his policies, not his good intentions. If good intentions were all that mattered, Jimmy Carter would be considered one of the great presidents of our history.

Still, despite this record of poor decisions, despite the fact a decisive majority of Americans favor beginning to pull out of Iraq _now_, not even waiting until October (27% decrease now, 33% pull all out now, 21% increase now, 13% stay the same now, 6% undecided), somehow President Bush feels he has earned the right to yet another "blank check"?

Wish my creditors worked on that plan.


P.S. Anonymous Liberal has a nice related post here (scroll to the top after clicking through).