What did George W. Bush accomplish in his 8 years as the US president?

Answer 1

First, it is always difficult to evaluate a recent president. His supporters have stood by him and defended his actions; his detractors have accused him of some of the worst decisions in decades. So, this answer may contain some opinion. It is undeniable that George W. Bush led us through some interesting and challenging times. He was in charge on September 11, 2001, when the successful attack on the Twin Towers occurred, which started the war in Afghanistan. Some of his supporters say that if previous administrations (notably Bill Clinton's) had dealt more effectively with previous terrorist attacks, the attacks on 9/11 might never have occurred. But his detractors note that it was Mr. Bush's own administration that ignored warnings by some of his advisers (including a Presidential Daily Briefing) that Osama bin Laden planned to attack with airplanes. Had Mr. Bush taken the threats more seriously, who knows if the attack could have been prevented.

Then, there was the issue of Iraq. President Bush's supporters believed there was a good reason to invade that country. There is some evidence Mr. Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein from power before 9/11 ever occurred, but in fairness, President Clinton had also promised the use of force if Saddam refused to permit inspections of possible nuclear sites. Saddam was known to be a brutal dictator who had used poisoned gas on the Iraqi Kurds, and President Bush and his cabinet believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Scholars and historians are still debating whether there was actual proof of such weapons, but after 9/11, President Bush launched an invasion, first of Afghanistan and then of Iraq. The public went along with it, having been promised a quick and easy victory (and having been led to believe Saddam had something to do with 9/11... which he did not). But the war in Iraq did not turn out to be quick or easy at all; it ended up becoming an increasingly more deadly quagmire that killed or injured thousands of members of the American military. And it also turned out there were no WMDs.

President Bush ultimately failed to recognize the root cause of terrorism. According to Bush, "they hate our freedoms--our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote." And yet, this is a puzzling and ultimately false explanation. Bin Laden himself stated repeatedly that one of his primary motives for attacking the US was to get American bases off the country of Saudi Arabia. As terrorists see it, they do not fight against the American people; but rather, they believe they are fighting against American foreign policy. Thus, by occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, American foreign policy contributed to more terrorism, rather than helping to stop it.

When Mr. Bush took office, he was left with a surplus by President Clinton. But the economy was not as healthy as it looked. Every President (Republican and Democrat) since Jimmy Carter had ignored some of the country's financial woes, and greater deregulation (which escalated under President Reagan and continued throughout the Clinton years too) meant banks could make unsafe loans and engage in speculative practices with no federal oversight. President Bush also contributed to the financial meltdown by further deregulating a number of financial industries, allowing for wild financial bubbles. During his administration, Allen Greenspan responded to the 2001 dot com bubble in a way that many people see as contributing to the housing bubble which lead to financial meltdown. After the dot com bubble, Greenspan lowered the Fed Funds rate to very low levels for extended periods of time. While this helped the stock market and the administration was viewed favorably for its handling of the dot com crash at that time, this policy of very easy credit may have led directly to the housing bubble.

Although President Bush was elected on a platform of fiscal conservatism, as a whole, he did not live up to that standard. In fact, he engaged in even more spending than President Carter; he did not pay for either of the two wars, and he also went along with a prescription drug benefit that was not paid for. This cost him (and the Republican party) their base of supporters and lowered his approval ratings. President Bush was known for being a very spiritual man, a religious Christian with strong pro-life views, as well as someone who talked tough to America's enemies, which pleased the base of his party. But as time passed, the growing chaos in Iraq, the perception that he had misled the public about WMDs, and the worsening economy overshadowed his personal popularity. And perhaps that is the most ironic legacy: that someone elected on fiscal responsibility contributed to the worst meltdown of the economy since the great Depression.