This op-ed piece has it about right... And many here will wish they could keep this fact hidden from Public Consumption...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/01/obamas_revises_the_bush_years.html >>> In Iraq, Bush rightly took criticism for all that went wrong -- the WMD >>> fiasco, Abu Ghraib, the descent into bloody chaos in 2005-06. Then Bush >>> goes to Baghdad to ratify the ultimate post-surge success of that troubled >>> campaign -- the signing of a strategic partnership between the U.S. and >>> Iraq -- and ends up dodging two size-10 shoes for his pains. Absorbing that insult was Bush's final service on Iraq. Whatever venom the war generated is concentrated on Bush himself. By having personalized the responsibility for the awfulness of the war, Bush has done his successor a favor. Obama enters office with a strategic success on his hands -- while Bush leaves the scene taking a shoe for his country. Which is why I suspect Bush showed such equanimity during a private farewell interview at the White House a few weeks ago. He leaves behind the sinews of war, for the creation of which he has been so vilified but which will serve his successor -- and his country -- well over the coming years. The very continuation by Democrats of Bush's policies will be grudging, if silent, acknowledgement of how much he got right. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
