“Pappy” Bush always seemed like a nice guy to this author. Our 41st President who just passed away last week, was a typical Eastern-USA elite, raised in affluence and political power. (His daddy was US Senator Prescott Bush, the long-term Senator from Connecticut). George H W Bush touched all the bases in the traditional American “curses honorum”. Like his father before him, he served in the military, went to Yale, started a business with daddy’s friends (in oil) and entered politics. A political career was the goal and early life-plans for George Herbert Walker Bush.
As I write this, the remains of Mr. Bush are being shuttled here and there across nation in a extravaganza Roman Empire-style deification ceremony that seems out of character for the nice guy, unassuming gentleman President. One wonders why? Perhaps the Bush dynasty and its out-of power supporters would take the opportunity to revise the history of the Bush family and the disaster that befell their “brand” after Bush junior (43) finished with it. But just as important seems the need of the “establishment”, the ‘never-Trump” Republicans, the Democrats and the Deep State to use the corpse of Pappy Bush to bludgeon the sitting President. The TV and MSM commentators take great pleasure to contrast this “gentlemanly” President with our present “tough guy” White House occupant. G HW Bush does not deserve this misuse.
“HW” seemed the epitome of the American “decent guy” of the Great Generation. But he was a not a “god” he human being with some failings too. As when as a raw “kid-pilot” of twenty years-old– he parachuted from his shot-up Grumman Torpedo Bomber in WWII leaving his rear gunner and bombardier behind to crash and perish in the Pacific— in their now pilotless plane. Or when as an old man he was accused of “inappropriate touching” by multiple women. But we all are guilty of such youthful blunders and some =—the foibles of an old man suffering from advanced stenosis of the cranial arteries. What is true is that the bulk of his life was one of exemplary service to nation and family.
He served the nation as a young WWII flyer, Congressman, Ambassador to the UN, CIA Director, Ambassador to China, Vice President and our forty-first President. With his experiences in the Navy and in government as training, he was probably one of the best qualified candidates ever elected to the White House. He signed the Clean Air Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and banned import of automatic weapons. He brought the nation through a difficult period during the fall of the Soviet Union. He wisely supported German reunification and also (the questionable) expansion of NATO. Faced with big spending deficits, he raised taxes which he had promised in his campaign NOT to do. His infamous “read my lips” speech cut deeply into his support when he went back on that pledge. A recession in 1990 caused hardship in the American workforce which he seemed oblivious of. Also due to monetary policies of the FED, economic recovery was very slow—similar to that of Obama’s term. Workers and voters were dissatisfied with both Washington and Bush policies.
He did some bad stuff too. In the Middle East, Iraq’s strongman Saddam Hussein—whom Bush initially befriended—complained bitterly to his US handlers when he discovered that neighboring Kuwait was pumping excessive amounts of oil which kept prices low and as well was secretly tapping into into Iraq’s underground oil reservoirs, and selling the oil in competition with Iraq. Kuwait drillers used the technique termed “slant oil drilling”. (Later, that same technique with some added twists would be used in the USA in the process of “fracking” hard to exploit and played out US domestic oil reservoirs .) . President Bush and his US Iraq Ambassador April Glaspie listened, but with little sympathy to Saddam’s legitimate complaints. Then either ignoring or unwilling to get involved, Bush gave Saddam a “green light” to solve his “inter-Arab problems on his own”. It was a major foreign policy blunder that was to encourage Saddam into a disastrous invasion and then occupation and annexing of Kuwait.
With Iraqi troops in Kuwait, shivers of fear through the entire Arab oil-producing world. Bush was forced to respond. He turned on Saddam, a former strongman-client, when he orchestrated the UN response and a US-led international force in the First Iraq (Gulf) War. During this conflict, Bush used American air power improvidently—perhaps as a demonstration to prove that after the Vietnam defeat the USA was still a potent force to reckon with. US forces proceeded to “degrade” the Iraqi army—- and as well, they targeted Iraq’s civilian infrastructure. US bombs and missiles took out water treatment plants, dams, flour mills, factories, civilian bomb shelters (with great loss of life) , transportation hubs, food storage facilities and similar “soft” targets. The UN characterized this over-reaction as tantamount to “war crimes, though these charges were never fully implemented. Many Iraqi civilians died as a direct result of the bombing, and after the conflict, during the “punishment of Saddam phase”. many thousands more died of malnutrition, disease, and exposure.
This first US invasion—never reaching Baghdad— set the political and military stage for the disastrous Second Iraq (Gulf) War under George W Bush. Iraq which had been degraded both militarily and economically by the First Gulf War was considered a “soft target” by Bush (43) “junior” who after the 9-11 attacks imagined he could bolster his reputation and popularity by easily and successfully invading that nation— falsely claiming Saddam harbored nuclear weapons. He was horribly duplicitous and wrong on all counts. That second “Bush blunder” turned out to be the worst foreign policy decision in all of American history.
Thus, last week a descent man, a former President passed from the scene. A man of his times. Perhaps not the greatest occupant of the Oval Office. George H W was always the elite “patron”, the epitome of the establishment “insider”. His only weakness was his inability to take the pulse of the common folks—with whom his life experiences gave him little contact (Andover, US Naval Officer, Yale, then Congress, Ambassadorships, CIA, VP and President). His gentlemanly demeanor were all part of a life-training of one surrounded at all times by powerful friends who eased his way and opened doors to smoothly advance his career. But he had little training in leadership
The Media are raising Bush 41 to a godlike stature as a better cudgel to attack President Trump. But these times—when the establishment is being exposed as ignoring the will of the people as expressed in elections, too cozy with power and and money and too corrupt—all call for an attack dog in the White House— not a companion or service dog.
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