By Daniel Nardini
Remember the Great Recession? Unlike many Americans, I remember that time period very well. I knew of people who had lost everything during that time. They lost their jobs, their businesses, their homes and all of their money. The Great Recession was the second worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, and it was in essence the third greatest disaster for the United States under then U.S. President George W. Bush after September 11th and the New Orleans disaster after Hurricane Katrina that among other things forever damaged the legacy of the Bush era. Tens of millions of people lost everything, but no official was ever held accountable for this economic disaster, and President Bush was most certainly never held accountable for this economic upheaval that cost tens of millions of Americans so much. My own uncle Axel and aunt Dorothy lost $28,000 in bonds, and never received a dollar in compensation. Yet today, somehow Bush is now seen as a “distinguished senior statesman.” How is this possible?
Of course, I have not yet thrown in the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War. As if it was not bad enough that then President Bush had put all of America’s intelligence services to sleep so that none of them saw September 11th coming, Bush launched a war that in the end did not entirely get rid of the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan. To make things more complicated, Bush then launched an unprovoked war against Iraq. I will not debate the fact that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a total monster, but exactly what gave Bush the legal right to overthrow Hussein and conquer Iraq? Essentially that is what happened. But conquering a country and holding it are two different things. In the end, 4,431 Americans soldiers were killed trying to hold onto Iraq, and America really gained nothing from its act of conquest. Iraq is now an Iranian client state run by pro-Iranian militias more than anything else. In my mind, the Iraq War was one of the most unnecessary wars not only in U.S. history but in world history.
But the cornerstone of total disaster under Bush was the Afghanistan War. Bush should have just packed up all U.S. troops after getting rid of most of the Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan (actually, that is not even true. The Al Qaeda network just simply moved into Pakistan. It took another U.S. president, Barack Obama, to kill the head of the Al Qaeda network, Osama bin Laden, and effectively destroy the Al Qaeda network ten years after September 11th. This was something Bush did not do at all in his entire presidency). BUT NO, Bush kept American troops in Afghanistan indefinitely and worse tried to prop up a completely corrupt Afghan national government under the delusion that the United States could make Afghanistan into a liberal democracy. Bush tried to change the very nature of a country with tribal affiliations and a religion (Islam) going back 1300 years. Talk about a bridge too far! In the end, all the United States got was 2,439 dead U.S. soldiers, lost 2.1 trillion dollars, and the enemy the Taliban won.
What about the torture of enemy combatants? What about the hidden CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) jails around the world? What about the torture of prisoners of war and suspects by the U.S. military in Abu Ghraib in Iraq? Only a few low ranking people were punished, but no high ranking military personnel and certainly no one in the Bush administration received justice for their crimes. So, to this present day, no one in the Bush administration was ever punished for the Great Recession, starting the Iraq War, or for the so-called War on Terror. Why didn’t the Democratic Party when it was in power ever punish those Republicans who were truly guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as crimes against the U.S. Constitution and against the American people? What I am talking about is the recent past; what has actually happened. If it is any blueprint to go on, then I am not very optimistic that those officials, U.S. military brass, or any high official in the current U.S. President Donald Trump administration will receive any real punishment for what they are doing now. The worst that will happen will probably be they resign, Trump fires them, or the whole Trump regime will end. We simply do not know what the future will be. All we know is what happened in the past, and we cannot change history.
We Cannot Change History
By Daniel Nardini
Of course, I have not yet thrown in the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War. As if it was not bad enough that then President Bush had put all of America’s intelligence services to sleep so that none of them saw September 11th coming, Bush launched a war that in the end did not entirely get rid of the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan. To make things more complicated, Bush then launched an unprovoked war against Iraq. I will not debate the fact that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a total monster, but exactly what gave Bush the legal right to overthrow Hussein and conquer Iraq? Essentially that is what happened. But conquering a country and holding it are two different things. In the end, 4,431 Americans soldiers were killed trying to hold onto Iraq, and America really gained nothing from its act of conquest. Iraq is now an Iranian client state run by pro-Iranian militias more than anything else. In my mind, the Iraq War was one of the most unnecessary wars not only in U.S. history but in world history.
But the cornerstone of total disaster under Bush was the Afghanistan War. Bush should have just packed up all U.S. troops after getting rid of most of the Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan (actually, that is not even true. The Al Qaeda network just simply moved into Pakistan. It took another U.S. president, Barack Obama, to kill the head of the Al Qaeda network, Osama bin Laden, and effectively destroy the Al Qaeda network ten years after September 11th. This was something Bush did not do at all in his entire presidency). BUT NO, Bush kept American troops in Afghanistan indefinitely and worse tried to prop up a completely corrupt Afghan national government under the delusion that the United States could make Afghanistan into a liberal democracy. Bush tried to change the very nature of a country with tribal affiliations and a religion (Islam) going back 1300 years. Talk about a bridge too far! In the end, all the United States got was 2,439 dead U.S. soldiers, lost 2.1 trillion dollars, and the enemy the Taliban won.
What about the torture of enemy combatants? What about the hidden CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) jails around the world? What about the torture of prisoners of war and suspects by the U.S. military in Abu Ghraib in Iraq? Only a few low ranking people were punished, but no high ranking military personnel and certainly no one in the Bush administration received justice for their crimes. So, to this present day, no one in the Bush administration was ever punished for the Great Recession, starting the Iraq War, or for the so-called War on Terror. Why didn’t the Democratic Party when it was in power ever punish those Republicans who were truly guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as crimes against the U.S. Constitution and against the American people? What I am talking about is the recent past; what has actually happened. If it is any blueprint to go on, then I am not very optimistic that those officials, U.S. military brass, or any high official in the current U.S. President Donald Trump administration will receive any real punishment for what they are doing now. The worst that will happen will probably be they resign, Trump fires them, or the whole Trump regime will end. We simply do not know what the future will be. All we know is what happened in the past, and we cannot change history.