Bush Hatred: The Sequel

With the prospect of a decent outcome in Iraq -- perhaps even the first liberal democracy in the Muslim world -- looming ever more likely, Bush-haters have lately begun to argue that the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush must be considered a moral abomination regardless because the conduct of the war on terror has undermined America's core principles.

To spearhead this new talking point comes a spate of recent books with especially ominous titles: The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer; Bush's Law: The Remaking of American Justice by Eric Lichtblau; Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values by Phillipe Sands; and, silliest of all, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugiolsi. [snip]

Here's the truth they cannot grasp:

Like every war before it, the war on totalitarian Islam is a nasty, brutish endeavor. It is fraught with obscene excesses and squalid idiocies because, like every war before it, it looses the primordial evils of tribalism and bloodlust to which the human race, even at its current stage of evolution, remains heir. No technological advantage can render war antiseptic. War is always wrong. Which is why its only justification is the conviction that by going to war you're avoiding an even greater wrong down the road.

President Bush felt that conviction, and he acted on it.

If Iraq stabilizes anytime soon, and provides a liberal democratic exemplar that inspires the Muslim Middle East out of the Dark Age in which it has wallowed the last millennium, Bush will eventually be ranked with Lincoln and Roosevelt among our greatest presidents -- for the very reason that he championed American values.

Bush-haters, in turn, will join the long ranks of history's laughingstocks.

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