by Suzanne Marsh

Created on: August 31, 2008   Last Updated: November 13, 2009

George W. Bush's legacy depends upon what the news media has decided to make his legacy. Yes, you read that correctly, the news media, who does not back Mr. Bush, who makes him look like a fool. We Americans are always ready to believe the worst in people not the best. Did Mr. Bush do it right in Iraq? What about his economic and unemployment record?

The question about whether Mr. Bush did it right in Iraq should be seen from a different perspective that what it has been, since this is part of what will be Mr. Bush's legacy. Put aside misinformation that was received and hampering Mr. Bush's decision to remove Saddam Hussein from his reign of terror. I believe that there has always been more to Mr. Bush's decision than just merely Saddam Hussein, especially considering the location of Iraq, in respect to its neighbor Iran. These are real threats to our nation, they are not perceived threats as some have thought. Yes, we have young men and women dying over in Iraq: however the threat of terrorism here on our own soil is still there. If we were to pull out of Iraq now what is going to deter these terrorists from attacking us again here in the United States? Did we not learn anything from 9/11? Mr. Bush, I believe did, give him a little bit of credit for having some foresight. That is part of his legacy, he did the right thing. He began the War on Terror, he did it right when we told Americans to go about living their daily lives. If we give in and shake in our boots every time there is a threat of terror, we are giving into our enemies, we are giving them what they want, to terrorize us.

Thus far our economy has not suffered as much as we would like to believe. Since when do we Americans have to depend on the government to bail us out of anything? How about the sub prime lending practices of the banks and all the problems that has caused. That was not Mr. Bush's doing it was ours; we allowed the banks and other lending institutions to give us mortgages we could not afford, then we expect the government to bail us out. We are not in a recession, we do however need to learn to budget our money, and stay out of debt. So why blame Mr. Bush for something we did ourselves? He has tried to stimulate the economy with the economic package, that was a first in its own way. It was the first time in our history that we received money back from the IRS. It has stimulated the economy people began to purchase items again. Did it truly, that remains to be seen. This also is a positive regarding Mr. Bush's legacy.

Unemployment is down, which is great. That is a positive indicator that the economy is basically sound. However the news media says that is not the situation. Who do we believe? The man we placed in office or the news media? Think about it people, if we don't trust Mr. Bush, who do we trust? The media that tells us what we think we want to hear? Is this what we have become as a nation?

America, we need to take a good long look at ourselves before we decide what legacy Mr. Bush is leaving us. Especially we baby boomers; is this the legacy we want to leave our children, a legacy of condemnation and fear. Somehow that just does not seem like the right thing to do. I believe Mr. Bush did do things right especially the War on Terrorism, that may be his greatest legacy, that we are not living in fear.

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