President Bush Was No Fool

Or at least he was no neocon, as is suggested by these articles noting that in his second term, he was distancing himself from his second-in-command — Cheney Uncloaks His Frustration With Bush and Memoirs to reveal Dick Cheney thought Bush had gone soft on war on terror.

The final, most dramatic example of this came at the beginning of this year, but was hardly mentioned anywhere — The War President Bush Stopped. The anti-Bush left and right were unwilling to give the vilified figure any credit; the neocon center was furious that its nefarious plan had been both exposed and thwarted.

"If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us; if we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us," said Candidate Bush — Online NewsHour Presidential Debate- October 12, 2000. I remember being stunned by his words, hearing the most intelligent statement by a presidential candidate I had ever heard, or would hear until Congressman Ron Paul made his run.

And I think he meant it; such a position was not yet heretical in the G.O.P., especially after eight years of Clintonian "indispensable nation" nation-building and cruise missile diplomacy. What a pity that President Bush took seriously the media's allegations that he was "inexperienced" (as if that's a negative) and surrounded himself with the same foreign policy "experts" who would get us into so much trouble, rather than sticking to his own "humble nation" guns.