Another Bush



February 9, 2011 by Bob Livingston

The campaign to select the Republican to challenge Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential election is underway and it seems the Republican brain trust has selected its challenger: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

The neoconservative rag National Review — the champion of liberal Republican RINOs like John McCain and Mike Castle and mouthpiece for the Republican establishment — is touting Jeb’s credentials in its cover story this week, and on Monday, Editor Rich Lowry posted on National Review Online eight reasons Jeb should run in 2012 rather than 2016. His reasons: The GOP field is wide open, 2016 will be too late (twice), brother George W.’s legacy is being rehabilitated, Jeb will always be a Bush, he’s not just another Bush, he can unite the party and waiting is a mistake (see Mario Cuomo).

I can think of as many reasons why another Bush would be bad for the country. But for the sake of brevity, I’ll mention just one: Perpetual war.

In January 1991, President George H.W. Bush launched a war in the Middle East that continues more than 20 years later. Started under the pretext of freeing Kuwait from a dictator — Iraq’s Saddam Hussein — the war was fought to ensure the free flow of oil to America from Bush the elder’s bosom buddies, Saudi King Fahd and his family.

While Kuwait is a free country compared to most in the Middle East, it is ruled by a king whose family has overseen the country since 1752. A monarchy is not a free country, so Bush traded one dictator for another he liked better.

After Hussein capitulated and retreated back into Iraq, American military bases established throughout the region remained. The American military presence in Saudi Arabia is one of the reasons cited by Osama bin Laden for launching the 9/11 attacks on America.

Throughout the remainder of Bush the elder’s term, and then all the way through Bill Clinton’s, America remained at war with Iraq. United States fighter jets patrolled the skies, the occasional Tomahawk missile was launched and American troops and materiel remained in place — ostensibly to keep Hussein in check.

Then came George W. Bush. After 9/11, Bush received carte blanche from Congress to make war where he pleased. And it pleased him to do what his father had not: Remove Hussein — a product of CIA meddling in the Middle East in the 1980s as a foil to Iran — from power.

Now Barack Obama continues the fight in the Middle East, and despite his tall talk that he believes all people should be free and should settle their own affairs, the fact remains that he continues to meddle in the internal affairs of the region and favored the Iranian regime over the Iranian people in their protests in 2009 and favors 30-year dictator Hosni Mubarak over the Egyptian people now.

If we have another Bush at the helm, guided by the war-happy neoconservative wing of the GOP, you can be assured the perpetual war will continue. The country cannot afford another Bush.

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