A President Unworthy of Trust
Bush Has Earned Lots of Criticism

By: Judy Fitzgerald

Could it perhaps be because the media in the rest of the world are not as censored as the corporate-controlled media in the United States?

Shortly after 9/11, newspapers from around the world ran articles about all the different countries that had warned the United States in advance of 9/11. A British newspaper had run an interview with a terrorist back in the summer prior to 9/11 in which the terrorist bragged of an attack like 9/11.

Blair may or did support Bush, but an overwhelming number of the British do not.

Could it perhaps be that a lot of people do not trust Bush because he has told one cynical lie after another? From his claims of having been the environmental and education governor of Texas (even though his record indicates the opposite) to not touching Social Security to being a "compassionate conservative".

In short, his walk simply does not match his talk.

Could it be that a lot of people do not trust Bush because of his going AWOL from the Texas National Guard? Could it be that people don't trust his administration because so many of the people in it (with the exception of Secretary of State Colin Powell) who are calling the loudest for war evaded serving their country during Vietnam? This includes the Vice President.

Could it be that people don't trust Bush or his Vice President because they both have been up to their necks in Enron and Enron-style scandals?

Could this administration's insistence on absolute secrecy for all its activities - including the domestic energy agenda - be a part of the lack of trust that so many feel?

Could it perhaps be the close ties Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the administration have with the oil industry? Daddy Bush's Carlyle Group profits handsomely from war and from controlling energy supplies.

Or maybe it's the way certain media personalities keep comparing Dubya - who can't seem to make a coherent sentence on his own - with true greats of history like Churchill, FDR, Andrew Jackson, Kennedy, Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln, etc.

Or, maybe it is just the fact that there is something innately untrustworthy about an individual who equates even the mildest criticisms of him or his policies with being "un-American", "unpatriotic", etc.

What Bush needs is plenty of criticism. If people had been criticizing his policies sooner, the stock market might not be tanking, we would still have a surplus instead of a deficit, unemployment would not be up, we would not be in a recession, Medicare would not have been cut, our traditional allies would still respect and trust us, etc.

And, considering all the warnings from other countries, and considering that Bush ignored the warnings as well as the report and recommendations for averting terrorism that the Clinton administration left for him, 9/11 might never have happened.