Yeah I think is is a good guy that was used cause he is such an idiot. Well maybe he is good, who knows.
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George W Bush liked Kimmel's Oscars intro, loves Michelle Obama, & talks Will Ferrell
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Yeah I think is is a good guy that was used cause he is such an idiot. Well maybe he is good, who knows.
He was just the wrong man for the moment. There were a number of forces that made restraint harder, and overreach more possible: the US still saw itself as this hegemonic, all-powerful force benefiting from the dividends of a post-Cold War world order; 9/11 was a traumatic moment that changed quite a few calculations; and within his administration, he was surrounded by neoconservatives with a lot of baggage and ambition. Bush didn't have the strength, intelligence, or experience to maneuver around all those forces in an effective way.
This is from one of his debates with Gore:
A campaign is a campaign (and with Dick Cheney around, who knows how relevant any of that ever was), but either way, the sentiments expressed there are revealing. Throughout that debate, it was Gore pushing the "we're by far the most powerful country in the world, and if you don't think we should be there to stop genocide, ethnic cleansing, etc., you're wrong" narrative, and Bush pushing the "we need to be humble and restrained" narrative.
But he wasn't able to maintain that attitude when it mattered. Instead of speaking to the realist with him, 9/11 and most of the key people around him spoke to the idealist. He began to see the world through a rigidly good vs. evil lens, and decided it was imperative for the US to reengineer it in its image. Instead of rising to the moment, he got lost within it.
And most people calling Obama a war criminal have probably spent less than 5 minutes actually researching what war crimes are.
Him and his administration instigated a war that cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and the effects of which are still lingering today. No Iraq war, no Isis. Lets not let the passing of time mask how truly awful this man is. Trump is worse than him in many ways but he still has yet to start a disastrous and bloody war. Both of them are cunts. Lets not forget Katrina and the patriot act.
Ninja Scooter
Member
He better fall back before Barry puts hands on him.
Laevateinn
Member
DOWN
Banned
All proceeds go to a veterans fund but ok
Very sad that even Ellen is participating is this media tour, when Bush promoted hate and fear towards gay people to win reelection in 2004.
I don't know how qualified he ever was to do the job. He was always meant to be the set of keys to jingle in front of the American people and keep them occupied.
*would have* or *would've*
adamantypants
Member
If you told me 10 years ago that I'd look at GW Bush fondly in 2017, I would've laughed you out of the room. But here we are.
Not really. The Nuremberg principles state that ”planning, preparation, initiation of a war of aggression" constitute as a war crime. Let's not forget the continuation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The collapse of Libya and the bombing of seven sovereign nations with thousands of civilian deaths. The glove is a good fit. American hegemony was very much a thing under the Obama administration.
NotTheGuyYouKill
Member
Matthew McConoughey was in the army?
Chmpocalypse
Blizzard
Fucking this!
pre-9/11 he spent much of his presidency on vacation.
*ahem*
before going on to mock a woman on death row begging him for a pardon
W The Merciless: What We'll Remember Most About George W. Bush
HazySaiyan
Banned
I know she said she's not going to but I really want Michelle to run for president. She'd be great
What makes her a good candidate also makes her not want to. Especially after seeing what happened to her husband, shit I'm amazed she has any romanticism left for the human spirit after that.
That's the thing, he's very good at presenting a genial and likeable front, yet his presidency was utterly terrifying. It's tempting to see him as some sort of useful idiot for Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld to use as a shield for their wholesale hijacking of the country, but the man has a master's degree from Harvard - he's a clever guy and I don't think he was out of his depth at all.
Though I find it difficult to hate the man I'd say the world is unarguably a far worse place for him having been President, and I find the idea of him being embraced as "well, he's not as bad as Trump" completely repulsive.
Megawarrior
Member
People are so quick to forget.
Pyroclastic
Banned
I love how we've seen him more frequently in a month of this administration than we did during pretty much the whole of the obama years. someone smells an image change
EASTC0AST_GH05T
Member
Bush is no better then Billy Bob Thortons dad in the movie Monster Ball.
At least he isnt a fucking comic book super villain like Cheney and Trump
MightyHedgehog
Member
He may have a likeable side to him, but so do most human beings who are responsible for so much bad in the world. Doesn't change the fact that he presided over so much needless conflict and grift.
Is it really sad, though? Reflects well on both of them, in my opinion. Enemies shouldn't necessarily remain enemies forever.
I've gotta be honest here: among the arguments I've seen for Obama being a war criminal, this is among the more self-defeating. It seems a lot of people have a threshold for the label that is as low as "has participated in war." At the point Obama came into office, the war in Iraq was being waged in coordination with a proper Iraqi government, and there was no realistic scenario in which he could have ended it without a decent lag time. The war in Afghanistan was also not started by him, and either way, you can hardly simply take it for granted that it was a war of aggression. And in the case of Libya, that war was UN-sanctioned, and again, it shouldn't be so easy to call it a war of aggression, especially considering it waged in a manner that basically fit the framework of responsibility to protect principles.
Calling someone a war criminal is a serious thing, for a number of reasons. It's clear to me that people are throwing around the label without much regard to precision of language, with an assumption that it's some simple concept we have down to a science, and as a general expression of distaste for war.
You should totally feel free to argue "the glove is a good fit" - it may very well be. In general, though, we can't pretend the extent of our research matches the gravity of the accusation. And the main problem there isn't that we're calling people war criminals without knowing what it means to be a war criminal, but that we're doing so without knowing the implications. If war crimes are being committed, what should be done about it? Does it say more about the person, or the world? Without tackling the complications, you can't know.
Chmpocalypse
Blizzard
What an intellectually bankrupt "observation" you've made.
Karsticles
Member
I can't speak to most of your points, but I do agree that him painting the pictures of soldiers he put in harms way is reflective of a man who carries the burden of his decisions, and while I disagree with the decisions he made, I respect that he understands that weight and is living it right now.
I also question the general idea that we have to be permanently hateful toward this man for the things he did.
funkystudent
Member
GWB has always been a good interview for these kind of shows. He can turn on the charm and goof well.
I'm so glad a man who spent trillions on two wars that killed millions, wrote the modern fake news playbook and is one of the people most responsible for the current geopolitical state of the world can get his redemption through a weak willed, sycophantic, greedy and ineffective liberal media.
Get all you deserve.
Get all you deserve.
Mr.Shrugglesã
Banned
I guess this is the next step after trump was normalized.
ClosingADoor
Member
The guy is likable, and might even have his heart in the right place when it comes to some issues, but that does not excuse him for the terrible decisions he made while President. What could have been if Iraq was not invaded. The world wouldn't be perfect, but damn it would have gone differently.
Just gonna repost this as well
Ah yes, George W. Bush one of the vanguard of the fake news movement, whose government made over 900 false statements regarding the War in Iraq, who had the media positively salivating over his violent actions in the Mid-East.
He can go fuck off, he doesn't have a shred of credibility to speak on this subject and his actions have so much to do with the state of the world we currently inhabit.
This is from a Pulitzer winning investigative nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organizations.
https://www.publicintegrity.org/2008/01/23/5641/false-pretenses
TheWorthyEdge
Member
Bush is awesome. The whole family is just full of really great people.
if he was smart and honestly if he was as evil as we made him out to be, he wouldn't have fucked off to nowhere to paint self portraits from his bathtub. He would have done what Cheney did.
It doesn't absolve him of being a useful and dangerous idiot with a Presidential pen, but it does put some perspective on things.
It doesn't absolve him of being a useful and dangerous idiot with a Presidential pen, but it does put some perspective on things.
Reverend Funk
Comfy Penetration
You don't have to be smart to be evil
Bonen no Max'd
Banned
He wants to rehabilitate his image and sees a perfect opportunity to try and avoid the condemnation of history now that someone even more monstrous is president.
The downside is that he's still a monster.
Zvonimir Boban
Banned
"If he was smart"?
He fucked up the world for generations to come, has the blood of millions on his hands, is responsible for the rise of the likes of Trump and it didn't even take him a decade before he has people going "aaaaaah, he's a top lad really"
That's absolutely fucking genius.
You Are Viewtiful
Member
If 2007 GAF saw this thread... Y'all should be ashamed of yourselves lol.
The genius was the well connected industrialist behind him who planned the war and convinced the world. I want Cheney in a locked box. If anyone deserves to die in prison for what took place the last 15 years its him.
All I said is W is too dumb to be as evil and as diabolical as some of us made him out to be. And I bet Cheney is as evil as Bush is dull.
The shame is that he really is a dullard and didn't at all try to redeem himself post-Presidency by taking up or speaking up for any causes for the vulnerable.
Yeah I can't truck too much with GWB fondness. Through cowardice, incompetence, and deceit, he made the world a significantly worse place.
Dude should've just held out for the baseball commissioner job. I'm sure he would've been delightful and lovely in that role. At least this low-stakes retirement of doing art and carrying on in relative obscurity is about the best way to handle a truly ugly legacy.
Dude should've just held out for the baseball commissioner job. I'm sure he would've been delightful and lovely in that role. At least this low-stakes retirement of doing art and carrying on in relative obscurity is about the best way to handle a truly ugly legacy.
mrhyderager
Member
As much as I love Barack, no thanks. Political nepotism is a dangerous thing. Michelle was a great first lady and has a great personality but I see no evidence of her being a strong candidate for president.
exmachina64
Banned
Yes.
I'm not sure the "normalization" complaint can be reasonably applied to this guy. At least not in the context it usually is. There have been passionate debates surrounding him since he was elected, and we've had almost a decade to absorb his presidency. If some aren't as hostile to him as you find appropriate, it probably just comes down to the fact that not everyone is as determined to sustain the kind of raw hatred you seem to be expecting.
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