A Panegyric to the President 
By Deborah T. Bucknam

History should judge President George W. Bush as one of America’s great Presidents. His record of accomplishment in foreign policy, his grace in the face of unrivaled malevolence, his courage in the face of dreadful pressure, and his vision of a world made free are the stuff of greatness. Here is an abbreviated catalogue of his accomplishments and virtues:

President George W. Bush has liberated 50 million people from two of the most ghastly regimes in world history. For those who would minimize those achievements, a comparison with the two other Presidential liberators is appropriate. Abraham Lincoln freed 4 million slaves—at a human cost far greater than our current President’s wars of liberation. And sadly, Lincoln’s liberation of the slaves was short lived; replaced by Jim Crow laws and the ascendancy of the Ku Klux Klan—a liberation only to be completely fulfilled 140 years later with the election of Sen. Obama to the Presidency. President Franklin Roosevelt’s war of liberation also was enormously costly: nearly ½ million American servicemen died in the cause and 50 million others died in the calamity worldwide. The end of World War II did not bring liberation to all; to the contrary, former democracies in Eastern Europe came under a totalitarianism that lasted almost 45 years, a brutal regime was established in China that cost tens of millions of lives, and a Cold War began that lasted until 1991—50 years after the start of our involvement in World War II. To be sure, we cannot predict what the final result of President Bush’s emancipation of those oppressed peoples will be, but we know that so far American liberation of Afghanistan has brought education for girls and women, establishment of fair and free elections, even a nearly 20% reduction in the opium poppy crop. In Iraq, the country is enjoying an economic resurgence, a stable democratic government, and a security force trained by the finest military in world history. These are accomplishments unrivaled by any other American President.

George W. Bush’s quiet, innovative war against AIDS and other diseases has saved millions of lives in Africa. According to the London Guardian, the President’s Pepfar program in Africa "has been hailed as a "revolution" that is transforming healthcare in Africa and has been praised as the most significant aid programme since the end of colonialism." The paper goes on: "This is the best thing that ever happened to the poor people I work with," said Edward Phillips, a Catholic priest overseeing the distribution of life-saving antiretroviral drugs in Nairobi, Kenya. "It's one of the few times I've seen US government money really reach down to the poorest of the poor. It's kept a hell of a lot of people alive."

America’s War on Terror has, by any historical measure, been the most successful war American has ever waged. President Bush’s response to the most devastating foreign attack on American soil was to vow that he would protect Americans from another terrorist attack. He kept that promise. To keep Americans safe from terror attack has been no easy task. President Bush secured the cooperation of nations worldwide where it counted: in law enforcement, diplomacy, finance and military defense to prosecute a war that, after seven years, has been a stunning success.

The world left by George W. Bush is also more peaceful than arguably at any time in recorded history. According to the statistics compiled by the Center for Systemic Peace, the number of people who have been killed worldwide as a result of political violence has dropped precipitously during the Bush administration. In the first six years of the Bush administration, deaths from political violence dropped by 78%, averaged annually, when compared to the Clinton administration. And when compared with Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter’s administration, worldwide deaths from political violence has had a breathtaking decline: from approximately 17 deaths per 100,000 in 1980 to less than 1 per 100,000 annually during the Bush administration. This is no coincidence. President Bush’s successful worldwide war on terror, his stirring advocacy of freedom for all, his consistent support for emerging democracies, his effective AIDS program for Africans, and his multilateral efforts to contain rogue governments have had a salutary effect on the level of worldwide violence.

Winning a war on terror, liberating millions suffering under odious regimes, saving millions of the "poorest of the poor" from disease and death, and leaving a markedly more peaceful world. Not bad for only eight years of work.

Finally, unlike other American wars, the War on Terror has not eroded our civil liberties. President Bush, in response to the attacks, instituted a number of measures, nearly all of which have been upheld by the courts and/or ratified by both Republican and Democratic-controlled Congresses. The terrorist surveillance act, perhaps the most "notorious" of the alleged violations of our rights, has been reauthorized, as amended, in 2008 with the support of President elect Barack Obama, among others. There have been no mass arrests, no illegal rounding up of suspects, no purges. In contrast, the record of previous wartime American Presidents is disgraceful. President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and ignored the Supreme Court Chief Justice’s order to free a prisoner held without charge. President Woodrow Wilson authorized his attorney General Palmer to crack down on leftists, resulting in the largest mass arrests in American history—over 10,000 Americans. Franklin Roosevelt not only ordered the detention of hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese-Americans, including women and children, but he also ordered a secret loyalty program where government employees were purged if they were considered disloyal. President Harry Truman, in response to the Cold War threat, instituted his own loyalty program for government employees where their membership in certain organizations (the organizations’ names never disclosed to the employees) would result in termination from employment. The program provided for no appeal, and provided for protection for anonymous tipsters. Over 5000 government employees left as a result of the loyalty program. President Johnson’s FBI and CIA infiltrated Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s campaign and illegally kept files on innocent Americans. When compared to other wartime Presidents, President Bush has protected our civil liberties to a remarkable degree.

Finally, I suspect that the President’s daring moves in the last several months of his Presidency to limit the credit crises and get the economy working again will be seen as another example of his courage, audacity and unswerving commitment to the wellbeing of the American people.

On January 20, 2009, when the President relinquishes his post to the new President Barack Obama, George W. Bush can proudly state: Mission Accomplished.

Deborah T. Bucknam, Esq.
Law Offices of Deborah T. Bucknam & Associates, PC
PO Box 310, 1097 Main Street
St. Johnsbury, Vermont 05819