{"id":11714,"date":"2018-02-15T15:24:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T20:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=11714"},"modified":"2018-02-19T23:38:44","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T04:38:44","slug":"the-hill-george-w-bushs-forgotten-crimes-against-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/15\/the-hill-george-w-bushs-forgotten-crimes-against-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hill: George W. Bush’s Forgotten Crimes Against Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Hill, February 15, 2018\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
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\u00a0George W. Bush doesn’t deserve the media’s efforts at rehabilitation<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

by James Bovard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0\u201cOur democracy is only as good as people trust the results<\/a>,\u201d former President George W. Bush declared in a presumably well-paid speech<\/a> last week in the United Arab Emirates, a notorious Arab dictatorship<\/a>. Bush is being exalted as if he is the second coming of George Washington thanks to his implied slams<\/a> against the Trump administration. But Bush\u2019s actions during his eight year reign did far more to ravage democracy at home and abroad than most people realize.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Thanks to gushing media coverage, Bush is enjoying one of the greatest comebacks in modern American history. In the summer of 2008, only 22 percent <\/a>of Americans approved of Bush and 41 percent<\/a> said he was the “worst president ever.” Last month, a poll showed that 61 percent of Americans now approve of Bush<\/a>, and his support among Democrats quintupled, from 11 percent in early 2009 to 54 percent now. If Americans want to understand current political challenges, they need to recall Bush\u2019s forgotten debacles.<\/p>\n

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Speaking in New York in October, Bush called for \u201ca new, 21st century American consensus<\/a> on behalf of democratic freedom and free markets.\u201d But when he was president, Bush\u2019s policies assumed that spreading democracy gave him a license to kill.Shortly before he invaded Iraq in 2003, Bush assured a Washington think tank:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe nation of Iraq \u2014 with its proud heritage<\/a>, abundant resources and skilled and educated people \u2014 is fully capable of moving toward democracy and living in freedom.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though he invoked democracy to justify the war, U.S. military commanders three months after the fall of Baghdad \u201cordered a halt to local elections and self-rule in provincial cities and towns across Iraq, choosing instead to install their own handpicked mayors and administrators, many of whom are former Iraqi military leaders,\u201d the Washington Post reported<\/a>. Many Iraqis were outraged to see Saddam\u2019s former henchmen placed back in power over them. But, as Noah Feldman, the Coalition Provisional Authority\u2019s law advisor, explained, \u201cIf you move too fast, the wrong people could get elected<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bush administration only agreed to Iraqi elections after massive street protests demanding the right to vote. Bush reportedly authorized massive covert aid to pro-American Iraqi parties and politicians. However, when senior members of Congress such as Nancy Pelosi<\/a><\/span> were briefed on the plan, they vehemently objected. Bush canceled the formal plan but delivered covert aid anyhow, using back channels and undercover operators<\/a> kept secret from Congress as well as the American public.<\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s 2005 election was more akin to a Soviet Bloc referendum than a New England town meeting. As part of Operation Founding Fathers, American troops traveled around broadcasting a get-out-and-vote message<\/a> at the same time they raided people\u2019s homes. After soldiers passed out thousands of sample ballots, the top UN election official condemned<\/a> U.S. military interference. Bush proclaimed the elections a \u201cresounding success<\/a>\u201d but despite CIA handouts, pro-U.S. candidates were crushed by pro-Iranian parties. The animosities inflamed by the election campaign helped propel Iraq to civil war, which Bush invoked the following year to justify sending far more U.S. troops there.<\/p>\n

Bush has recently fretted about Russian involvement in American elections but when he was president, Bush acted las if the United States was entitled to intervene in any foreign election he pleased. He boasted in 2005 that his administration had budgeted almost $5 billion \u201cfor programs to support democratic change around the world<\/a>,\u201d much of which was spent to tamper with foreign elections.<\/p>\n

The Bush administration spent over $65 million to boost their favored candidate in the 2004 Ukraine election, including \u201chelping to underwrite exit polls indicating he won a disputed runoff election<\/a>,\u201d according to the Associated Press. Yet, with boundless hypocrisy, Bush proclaimed that \u201cany (Ukrainian) election \u2026 ought to be free from any foreign influence.\u201d<\/a> The Bush administration rushed $2 million to aid the ruling Fatah party<\/a> to help them thwart Hamas in a 2005 Palestinian election, to no avail. U.S. government-financed organizations helped spur coups in Venezuela in 2002<\/a> and Haiti in 2004<\/a>. Both of those nations remain political train wrecks.<\/p>\n

In his October speech, Bush boasted: \u201cNo democracy pretends to be a tyranny<\/a>.\u201d But as president, Bush acted as if ravaging the Constitution was part of his job description. Shortly after 9\/11, Bush turned back the clock to before 1215 (when the Magna Carta was signed), formally suspending habeas corpus and<\/a> claiming a prerogative to imprison indefinitely anyone he labeled a terrorist suspect. In 2002, Justice Department lawyers informed Bush that the president was entitled to violate the law<\/a> during wartime \u2014 and the war on terror was expected to continue indefinitely. In 2004, Bush White House counsel Alberto Gonzales formally asserted a \u201ccommander-in-chief override power\u201d entitling presidents<\/a> to ignore the Bill of Rights.<\/p>\n

Under Bush, the U.S. government championed barbaric practices which did more to destroy America\u2019s moral credibility than all of Trump\u2019s tweets combined. \u00a0Bush\u2019s \u201cenhanced interrogation\u201d regime included endless high-volume repetition of a \u201cMeow Mix\u201d cat food commercial<\/a> at Guantanamo, head slapping, waterboarding, exposure to frigid temperatures, and manacling<\/a> for many hours in stress positions. After the Supreme Court rebuffed some of Bush\u2019s power grabs in 2006, he pushed through Congress a bill that retroactively legalized torture<\/a> \u2014 one of the worst legislative disgraces since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.<\/p>\n

In his October spiel, Bush also bemoaned: \u201cOur politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication<\/a>.\u201d Coming from Bush, this had as much credibility as former president Bill Clinton<\/a><\/span> lamenting the decline of chastity. As the lies by which he sold the Iraq war became exposed, Bush resorted to vilifying critics as if they were traitors in a 2006 speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

George W. Bush should have permanently taught Americans that presidents are most dangerous when seeking to con the nation into unnecessary wars \u2014 for democracy or any other pretext. \u00a0Unfortunately, the recent media consecration of Bush may be expunging that bitter lesson. It is possible to vigorously oppose Trump\u2019s abuses without fomenting delusions about his predecessors.<\/p>\n

James Bovard is <\/em>a USA Today columnist<\/em><\/a> and the author of 10 books, including \u201c<\/em>Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty<\/em><\/a>\u201d (St. Martin\u2019s Press, 1994).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hill, February 15, 2018 \u00a0George W. Bush doesn’t deserve the media’s efforts at rehabilitation by James Bovard \u00a0\u201cOur democracy is only as good as people trust the results,\u201d former President George W. Bush declared in a presumably well-paid speech last week in the United Arab Emirates, a notorious Arab dictatorship. Bush is being exalted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1382,72,52,7,137,1381,27,12,708],"class_list":["post-11714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-approval-poll","tag-demagoguery","tag-democracy","tag-dictatorship","tag-george-w-bush","tag-iraq-war","tag-lying","tag-torture","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Hill: George W. 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Bush’s Forgotten Crimes Against Democracy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11714"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11729,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11714\/revisions\/11729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}