COUNTERPOINT: Is Bush the right man to continue running the U.S.?
Is George W. Bush the best man for the job? Most liberals say he is not. Why? Because he has been unable to see through any of the major issues that have plagued him in his term of office. Bush and his administration have had to juggle four major issues: Afghanistan, Iraq, the war on terror and a slumping economy.
Afghanistan was one of the world’s largest terrorist hubs in the world. All through the ’90s, a worldwide organization was being built, and the safe house was Afghanistan. The problem with Afghanistan is its history. It is a county riddled with fighting, and for years the country was fighting for America against the Soviets. All this fighting gave extremist groups a chance to flourish and become powerful.
Why didn’t the Clinton administration do more to protect America during the ’90s? It is clear that the forces that hit on Sept. 11 didn’t rise over night. They had an entire decade to plot and plan. During that decade, Afghanistan became a major headquarters, united under one thought to establish an Islamic nation state in the modern world.
In the year 2000, Bush took office and in 2001, America was attacked by outside forces. Who is responsible for the attack? Bush, who had been in office for one year, or Clinton who had been in the White House for the previous eight years. During those eight years, numerous attacks were made on embassies and American targets. Afghanistan was neglected for so long by the world that it will be a long time before Afghanistan is stable and flourishing.
The administration has been under attack for the costs of war in Iraq. Liberals have been screaming that Bush is not handling the situation well. The past two administrations have publicly said that Saddam Hussein is a threat and needs to be dealt with. So both sides have admitted that Hussein should be dealt with. Bush should be applauded for his courage and boldness. He stood up against the world and followed through with what he felt was the best thing for this country. While other countries didn’t want to get involved because of economic setbacks and deals they had struck with Iraq, Bush pushed forward and did not hide.
The war on terror is worldwide. This is the biggest silent war we have fought since the fall of the Soviet Union. There is no battlefield, no meeting ground. This war has no home country and no major capital. The key players are smart and well set up. They have been developing the ideas for 30 years. There are billions of dollars being traded worldwide to finance the idea of an Islamic state. Many of them have been giving their own fortune to fund it. Bush and his team have an extensive problem to deal with. They did attack in Afghanistan but that was just one of the places the movement can be run from. We will not see this end anytime soon; it is the cold war of the 21st century.
At home, Bush has had to deal with a slumping economy. The economy was hurt by the burst in the tech industry and was pushed deeper into a recession by the attacks on the World Trade Center. Bush has been criticized for not paying enough attention to the economy. Yet numbers are suggesting that the economy is on its way back. The markets have bounced back to higher levels and the interest rates remain low.
I suggest that Bush is exactly what America needs. He has shown America what a true leader is. Liberals making the argument about Bush not being able to finish anything he starts must have a warped perception on the enormity of the world’s current state. None of these problems discussed can be fixed over night. The important thing is Bush has taken the steps to fix these problems, and we are not putting them off as some of the liberal leadership has done in the past.
Spencer Lloyd is a junior majoring in business information systems. Comments can be sent to shlloy@cc.usu.edu.