by Bob Schmidt

Created on: January 17, 2007   Last Updated: April 23, 2007

The world and its presidents covers a lot of ground. With so many countries, and so many leaders, presidents, and otherwise, where should we start? As an American citizen, I can only realistically speak about my current president.

George Bush is my president, regardless of what is thought of him by others. He defends my interests as an American, and for that I am grateful. While some hold him in high esteem, others choose to dislike him for various reasons. I choose to stand on neutral ground, and objectively analyze him.

A president takes office and inherits all of the actions, and inactions, of those who preceeded him. He assembles a core group of people, cabinet members and advisers, to help him with the tremendous volume of information being sent to the "top". This includes an inherited intelligence system, CIA and FBI, and others. The short transition period between administrations barely allows for the new people to find their offices.

President Bush was barely settled in when the terrorists hit the towers in New York. His reaction was swift, and decisive. Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attack, and our President decided to take the battle with the terrorists to their turf in Afghanistan. Everyone knows this. Although we were forewarned that we'd never be successful, we crushed the terrorists there and freed the local people to elect, a government not dominated by the local "thugs".

Those who hate George Bush do so not becaise of how he is functioning as our president, they hate him for other reasons. The faulty intelligence reports about Iraq and Saddam's weapons of mass destruction were collected mostly by the Clinton-era Administration people. The inadequacy of that info may be directly tied to the large budget cut-backs on the CIA in the 90s.

George Bush is disliked because he is not willing to "cut and run". Some dislike George because they hate war, and death; which is understandable. Do we really think that he likes it? We know better than that, but are being blinded by our dislike of the results of war. For better or worse, President Bush is acting in what he considers to be the best interests of the United States.

I'm sure that we can all agree that the world that we live in today is a really dangerous place. We have a wacko in North Korea with nukes, and a nut-case in Iran who deludes himself into believing that the Holocaust never happened. He also seeks nukes at this moment. The new boy on the block is our buddy in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, who seeks to take his place at their table.

I'm glad that George Bush is my President, defending the principles of freedom, and trying to do the "right" thing for all of us. I am even happier that he refuses to permit emotions, political expediency, and the ignorance to guide his decision processes. The road he is traveling is a lonely one, and not popular either, but as a man of conviction he is doing what must be done.

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