Bush’s Dismal Legacy

Asked during an NBC News interview to respond to Senator John “War Candidate” McCain’s recent statement that he’d be happy to see a U.S. presence in Iraq for the next century, George W. Bush said, “That’s a long time.”

Gee, ya think?

Bush then added that that there “could very well be” a long-term American involvement in the civil-war-torn nation for another 10 years: “It could easily be that, absolutely.”

Make no mistake here, folks: Bush doesn’t want the United States to pull out of Iraq. He doesn’t want an end to the drain on the U.S. economy that is being caused by our military involvement there, because that drain prevents the expansion of domestic social programs--which, of course, the pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps GOP opposes. Withdrawing from Iraq wouldn’t be advantageous to the Republican’t Party, at least in the short term. Instead, the GOP wants Bush to leave as much of a mess in Iraq as he can by the time he has to vacate the White House--a mess that the Republican’ts can then use to bash Bush’s Democratic successor for the subsequent four years. They’ll charge that the Democratic president isn’t doing enough to end the violence in Iraq, that he or she failed to execute Bush’s “brilliant” war plan, and that the only way for the United States to stop the deadly action in Iraq is to install yet another bellicose Republican’t in the Oval Office.

It’s sad what costs Bush is willing to bear--the deaths of America’s young soldiers, the exorbitant cost to U.S. taxpayers--in order to advance the political interests of his calcified party. And this is the guy whose diminishing troops of supporters think can only become more popular as his exit date approaches.

Who the hell are they kidding?

READ MORE: “Despite Failure to Meet Bush’s Original Goals, McCain and Lieberman Declare ‘The Surge Worked’” (Think Progress).