Thank You George W. Bush

My wife the other day expressed a desire to send Mr. Bush a letter of thanks. I think she was talking about a real live piece of paper with ink on it, expressing sincere appreciation.

As I've said before, there are certainly things to complain about his support for amnesty for illegal aliens perhaps topping that list. (And can we get those two border agents pardoned, please?????) I think the bailouts are a particularly bad idea. And about anything he's done that makes govenment bigger is against my philosophy.

But the man did do some important things. The most recent was signing legislation repealing the federal ban on concealed firearms on some federal lands and in national parks. He also appointed two Supreme Court justices who have actually read the Constitution, understand it, and respect it. That's gold. He has also appointed several lower level federal judges with an eye toward respecting rather than bypassing the constitution.

He used some rarely used powers of the Presidency and pushed for laws to help us figure out who was planning to do what to us next, and stop it before it happened. 7 years & 4 months later, the thing all the experts in the weeks and months following 9/11 said would certainly happen again has not happened.

But the most important and impressive thing he did was to actually do something about our enemies who game the system to gain the upper hand. He responded to Al Queda by invading Afghanistan when the Taliban government refused to turn Bin Laden over. And he finished the 1991 war Saddam Hussein started when he invaded and seized Kuwait.

He was cut little slack for the first action, and was condemned before he started on the second action. Every little detail was interpreted in the worst possible light by his political enemies and most of the press (I know, kinda redundant there). Some of the most vile things were said about him. And I never once, not once, saw him respond in anger. He never lost his cool with his enemies. Though not the most articulate public speaker, I still say he has more class in his little finger than any of his rabid political opponents do in their entire bodies.

In a recent column in the Dallas Morning news, columnist Mark Davis observed:

For them, just as it was never enough to simply disagree with the Bush agenda, his departure is not limited to relief or even celebration. It is an occasion to suggest, as the reliably hateful Bob Herbert has for years from his New York Times pulpit, that President Bush has intentionally sent our sons and daughters into harm's way, corrupted the Constitution and mistreated those poor souls at Guantanamo, all with malevolent intent.

We went to war. We made some mistakes. We corrected the ones we could correct. The war was not won when the "Mission Accomplished" banner was displayed on that carrier. But nor did I ever believe Bush would quit until it was won. Contrast this with Harry Reid and company who kept screaming louder and louder that the war was lost right up to and well into "the Surge" -- no strategy could possibly work. Defeatists, posing as leaders.

Not so G.W. Bush. The man was a leader, and on the most important things, a good one.

Terrorists now know that the United States will not continue to roll over and capitulate to them. Dictators know we won't tolerate continued threats and defiances of cease fire agreements, and that there is a limit to the number of U.N. resolutions (apparently that number is 17) we will let you ignore after we whip your butt on it's behalf (and take all the flack for it even from the very members who voted for it.)

It's those who do who open themselves to criticism. We hire presidents to do. George has done, and he has handled the criticism with dignity (though his P.R. sucks. In his defense, he doesn't get it free from the press like Obama will.)

Thank you, George. Clear some brush on that impressively eco-friendly ranch of yours, and give Laura a kiss for me. On the cheek, of course.