Bush Didn't Mess Up, Cheney Did.

Many people blame the state of our country on the eight years of the Bush Administration for taking us to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which ran up the deficit which sent this country into a recession almost as bad as the great depression. Well, I don’t blame former President Bush for the problems we face entirely. I place most of the blame on the Vice President at the time, Richard Cheney.

Yes, if I had been president I too would have sent troops to Afghanistan to seek out those that would commit violent acts of terror as that we faced on September 11, 2001. But I would not have gone into Iraq at all. The reason I say Cheney bares the majority of the blame is because I feel he was an older man with more political experience than President Bush. In my opinion, Cheney took advantage of a young man with no international experience. According to the movie “W”, made by Oliver Stone, there is a scene where the President, Vice President and the joint chiefs of staff all met and discussed weapons of mass destructions which is the reason in the first place that Bush attacked Iraq. All the Joint Chiefs said their information came from Cheney when all the time he was looking at cattle troughs.

There was also an article written last year where Cheney was interviewed in order to promote his book. In a Washington Post article, Cheney mentions that the President was more concerned with public opinion than he was at listening to him in his second term.

I also remember reading an article where Cheney wanted to send military troops to Buffalo, NY to round up a group of terrorist suspect he considered as being part of Al-Qaeda. That would have been an abuse of military use because The Constitution of the United States forbids the use of the military to act as a police force. This very act would have been one of the very things our founding fathers were afraid of; a standing army. After high intelligence talks, President Bush sent the FBI in to apprehend what would become known as the Lackawanna Six. The act of deploying active troops on US soil has not been done since the Civil War and would have been a grave error if you ask me.

During the intelligence talks it seems to me that everyone knew what could and could not be done except for Vice President Cheney. So, I ask you. Who do you think messed things up so bad? Again I admit, Bush was the President and should have acted more as a leader, but I feel he was under too much pressure from an older and very powerful man whom had spent close to half his life in politics.

Now, every time you turn around you hear Dick speaking out against the present administration. I admire our former president for not criticizing the job of this administration. After all, it is the hardest job in the world.