by Radhakrishnan

Created on: January 13, 2009

America has at last reached the end of the Bush era. The Americans made a bad mistake in electing such a clueless incompetent to be president the first time (in preference to Al Gore) and a far worse one in re-electing him for a second term. History will judge them harshly for these mistakes which have cost them and the world dearly. While Bush senior was an indifferent president his son literally put his foot in it and made a real mess of the job. Throughout the world the feeling grew that the majority of Americans were untrustworthy and fickle to the principles of their constitution and to their responsibilities as the richest nation in the world.

The Americans may have redeemed themselves somewhat with the historic election of Barak Obama for president. But they will continue to bear the scars of their past mistakes for a long time yet - perhaps forever. Sadly so will the rest of the world to a great extent. George Bush's defence of his term in office shows that he for one has learned nothing from his mistakes. But one hopes most of the Americans have and that they will exercise much greater caution in their choice of a president. American and the world can at least be happy about one thing. If George Bush as president was bad, Dick Cheyney as president would have been a nightmare. At least we were spared that misfortune.

What caused the Americans to make these mistakes? Particularly the re-election of George Bush despite the ample evidence in his first term that he was unfit for that office in the eyes of most right-thinking people? It would appear that excessive prosperity and wealth had created a cocoon for the majority of Americans who felt that nothing in the world really mattered as long as their well-being and comfortable way of life were preserved. The rest of the world could go to dogs for all they cared. Their cosy existence received a rude jolt with the events of Sept 11 and it outraged them that anyone would dare to try and harm Americans. They wanted revenge and George Bush used this national feeling to support his attack on Iraq and complete the job his dad had attempted but failed to achieve. The lack of support for strong action in the UN and the failure of its weapons inspectors to find WMDs in Iraq tested his patience and pushed him into a war where he was totally out of his depth with regard to strategy and foresight of consequences. As the current economic crisis shows, he also drained the wealth of his nation accumulated over many decades

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