by Matthew Little

Created on: June 20, 2009   Last Updated: June 21, 2009

What will be the legacy of George Bush? Will he be remembered for Afghanistan ... Abu Ghraib ... or lraq?

George Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009, but he was Wilsonian because he wanted to democratise the Middle East and he sent 30,000 troops into lraq to repel al-Qaida in that region. Back in 2001 he invaded Afghanistan because of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and to control the oil in the region. He sent 3,500 troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban insurgency in that country. In 2007, after nearly seven years of military action, Bush said "Now, our commitment to democracy is being tested in the Middle East". The NeoJacobinism of the Bush administration cost Americans $600 billion on lraq and another $87.5 billion on Afghanistan. Bush called lran, lraq, North Korea, and Syria collectively the Axis of evil.

Recently, Bush signed into law a $170 billion economic stimulus, giving cheques to Americans and tax breaks to businesses to save the economy because of the critical state of the U.S. economy. In 2001, the national debt was $ 5.6 trillion but, by 2008, debt was $11.3 trillion, the government having had to bail out the banks. Bush had a financial rescue plan to buy back some of U.S. mortgage market. Unemployment went up from 4.2 percent in 2001 to 6.3 percent in 2003. There was a loss of jobs in the old industries and also, due to the $2trillion deficit, the economy was going down with accompanying lay-offs of large numbers of employees.

Bush had more government then any social democrat ever did when he was running the country - like homeland security, for instance - but he ended programs so he could privatize social security.

Bush did not support amnesty for illegal aliens coming into the country. He wanted immigration reform so employers could have cheaper workers and the green card was to stop more coming in because they are in competition for the same jobs as Americans, but with wages going down in the west they would have another underclass with no benefits in the country. The green card was to stop them being exploited by employers. So it is a document that is given to prove whether they have illegal or legal status in the US. Bush also banned stem cell research because he had keep support from his base which was the Christian right, but Bush did the right thing by sending more troops into lraq to keep al Qaida from expanding in that region, but al Qaida wanted the troops to withdraw from lraq because a democratic system would not work in the Middle East. Bush also sent Aids relief of $15billiion a year to Africa. What he most likely will be remembered for is that he started two wars and put the country into debt and the economy into deficit. It looks like Obama will be the same with the flood of money into the economy that he is proposing. Having projects which run into trillions will put U.S in deficit.

References

- http://www.washingtonpost.com

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_w._bush

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Permanent _Resident_Card

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