Ayoon wa Azan (Bush Is No More, but He Is Not Over Yet)

Jihad el-Khazen Al-Hayat - 07/11/08//

In light of my electoral experience from Lebanon to London and Washington, I can say that people do not vote for a candidate, but rather against the other candidate.

The Americans have elected Barack Obama as president. However, they have equally voted against the foolish, ignorant, and arrogant Bush Administration with its military tendencies, financial irresponsibility, and civil freedom violations.

George W. Bush disappeared in the last few weeks of the campaign. In his last televised debate with Barack Obama, John McCain said, "I am not George Bush," then went on to criticize Bush's economic policy and the damage it caused to US home owners. As the battle heated, Bush probably spent his days away from the spotlight in the gym running on a treadmill, watching TV and forgetting the outside world.

The Americans who voted for Bush twice (he was appointed by the Supreme Court the first time) lived to pay the price. With the support of the whole world, Bush waged a half war. He then left it, turning his back to the terrorists to wage an unjustified war on Iraq based on deliberately trumped up reasons. Then he returned to Afghanistan again, but only after the Alliance lost the war there.

The Bush Administration is responsible for the death of about one million Iraqis and 5,000 US and Allied troops. It is also responsible for the collapse of the US economy and that of the world: it borrowed money from China to fight in Iraq. When the economy collapsed, the treasury was bankrupt with no money left to face the crisis.

I wrote many times that George Bush is not to be blamed; he simply does not know. The lesson here is that the US President - and the president of the world as well - should not be stupid to allow the war gang to control the US foreign policy then harness it to impose a US Empire over the world and an Israeli hegemony on the Middle East and its people.

A war crime was committed against the people of Iraq. Just as the US people championed change and elected Barack Obama, an investigation into the Iraq war background must follow so as to call to account all those American officials and exiled Iraqis accused of plotting the war.

I do not think any investigation will end in a charge and a trial, because the indictment would be one of the US system itself, which created a war gang that, as soon as it entered Iraq, was followed by Halliburton and other oil companies to steal the country's riches in unannounced deals or no-bid contracts.

All George Bush ever wanted was to be a Baseball Commissioner. However, when the game's top dogs saw his ignorance, they discarded the idea. I ask now: What if he got the position he wanted? What if Ahmad Chalabi did not escape from Jordan, but was left there to serve a 22-year prison sentence on charges of fraud in the Petra Bank case?

Had this happened, Iraq might have been spared the catastrophic occupation, and thousands of US and other troops would have been alive among their loved ones.

"What if" is always the question we ask after a disaster. When I was living in Washington, I once asked myself: What if Ronald Reagan was killed not wounded in the March 1981 assassination attempt? Would neocons have been able to carry out their extremist policies, control policy-making centers during the term of an old, practically senile man then return to those centers with an ignorant president who attended Yale and Harvard and managed to graduate dumber than before?

Bush is no more, but he is not over yet. He is the worst US president ever. Yet he will stay with us thanks to his heavy legacy. This will be a millstone round Obama's neck over the coming four years. The new president has no unique magic wand. It will take him years to put the US economy back on track and embellish the reputation of the US abroad.

The man of yesterday, George Bush, will leave the White House in two months. However, the disaster his policies have left the US and the world will endure.