I was watching the conspiracy theories episode of The Big Picture and MovieBob made a comment that bothered me when he stated that Bush was an idiot. I haven't actually ever commented my opinion on this topic before but I thought I would give it a try. My argument is going to center on his decision to go into Iraq and an aside about the bailout. Finally I do not necessarily agree with all of his decisions, I just think calling him an idiot insulting and doesn't really hold up to any amount of closer inspection. Well here we go.
Firstly there is the fact that every analyst hired to look at the data that we had on Iraq before the war has come to the conclusion that it looked like they had WMDs. This includes analysts who were hired to relook at the data after we attacked and were unable to find anything. This points to bad data over idiocy on anyone's part.
An even bigger reason that I don't understand why everyone refers to Bush as an idiot for this decision is that I don't get it would have changed his decision if he had been any more intelligent than he is. Its not like he was the one who was analyzing the data all he is doing is acting based on the data he was being given. Again the fault seems to lie with whomever collected the data in the first place.
Other reasons that I think everyone has been way to quick to judge Bush his other most controversial policy, the bailout (even if large portions of America don't realize it was his policy and give credit to/blame Obama), was quite successful. Much of the loans given have been paid back and there is even a chance that we actually make money on it.
All in all I think Bush was at the very least competent as a President. He was able to at the very least successfully pilot the country through many very complicated situations and while I don't come close to agreeing with many of his decisions I can understand where he is coming from.
Firstly there is the fact that every analyst hired to look at the data that we had on Iraq before the war has come to the conclusion that it looked like they had WMDs. This includes analysts who were hired to relook at the data after we attacked and were unable to find anything. This points to bad data over idiocy on anyone's part.
An even bigger reason that I don't understand why everyone refers to Bush as an idiot for this decision is that I don't get it would have changed his decision if he had been any more intelligent than he is. Its not like he was the one who was analyzing the data all he is doing is acting based on the data he was being given. Again the fault seems to lie with whomever collected the data in the first place.
Other reasons that I think everyone has been way to quick to judge Bush his other most controversial policy, the bailout (even if large portions of America don't realize it was his policy and give credit to/blame Obama), was quite successful. Much of the loans given have been paid back and there is even a chance that we actually make money on it.
All in all I think Bush was at the very least competent as a President. He was able to at the very least successfully pilot the country through many very complicated situations and while I don't come close to agreeing with many of his decisions I can understand where he is coming from.