One year ago on New Year's Eve, we offered this gloomy assessment of the legacy of President George W. Bush:
"It has been an enormously eventful seven years for the United States and for the world. By and large, the changes have not been for the better. The United States is deeper in debt, politically polarized, militarily overextended and more deeply distrusted around the world than it was when the president took office."
It was harsh judgment; couched in considerable relief that only one year remained of the Bush presidency.
As it turned out, though, even that one final year of Bush and his policies brought additional turmoil for the nation and the world.
The anti-regulation climate he created helped thrust the U.S. economy into its worst meltdown since the Great Depression, and his years of blissful inattention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict opened the way for a dangerous aerial bombardment war between Israel and Islamic militants in Gaza.
This day, the first of 2009, couldn't have raced here fast enough. Neither will Jan. 20, when Barack Obama will take the oath as the nation's 44th president.
Repeat that name and pinch yourself. Seven years ago, in the fearful aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, how much would anyone have been willing to wager that Bush would be succeeded by an African American president by the name of Barack Obama?
http://newageislam.com/closing-the-book-on-the-bush-era/islamic-world-news/d/1088
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10:01 PM
Moderate Islamist here
