Tumult of Bush era left to Obama

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

refid:10794093 ilişkili resim dosyası

At noon on Jan. 20, George W. Bush hands successor Barack Obama two unfinished wars and a worldwide economic meltdown and leaves historians the job of judging his tumultuous eight-year presidency. The 43rd U.S. president also bequeaths the controversial tactics of the global "war on terror" that he credits for protecting the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.

The vastly unpopular Bush, 62, will also leave behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a Middle East still in flames, uneasy relations with Russia, and, his supporters say, vastly improved ties with Brazil, China, and India.

Aides pointed to his overhaul of U.S. aid overseas, including a rise in assistance to help Africa battle deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS, and cited efforts to spread democracy worldwide among his successes, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. His high points included a defiant vow in the still-smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center to punish al-Qaeda at a time when he enjoyed staggeringly high popularity with the U.S. public.

His low points included the failure of the government response to Hurricane Katrina, which drowned New Orleans and helped send his job approval to lows not seen in at least a generation.

Boasting economic growth
On the economic front, Bush boasts of more than 50 months of uninterrupted growth and has rejected any responsibility for a U.S. housing crisis that has contaminated the financial sector worldwide over the past year. In 2008, the U.S. economy shed more jobs than at any time since 1945.

Still, Bush said with one week before Obama takes over, "I'm better than fine. I am proud of the accomplishments of this administration."

"As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11," The Associated Press quoted Bush as saying. "But I never did." Leaving office with the highest disapproval rating since Nixon, he said, "You may not agree with some of the tough decisions I have made, but I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions."

Where critics saw a bloody invasion of choice in Iraq and a failed war in Afghanistan, Bush unabashedly cited the "liberation" of the 50 million people, and links them to what he has touted as his success. With the Iraq war in its sixth year, at a cost of more than 4,000 U.S. lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, Bush acknowledged this week that his May 2003 speech under a "Mission Accomplished" banner "was a mistake." But the Abu Ghraib scandal and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, were "disappointments" - not mistakes - he said.

"I have often said that history will look back and determine that which could have been done better or, you know, mistakes I made," Bush said.