History's Job Is Not To Judge

The Prez Obama has appointed his National Security team to positive reactions by many observers and pundits. Interestingly, as one expert put it, this represents not a shift in American foreign policy but an actual continuation of it.

I wonder how the left are going to rationalize this. As I wrote last month, it was unrealistic to believe there was going to be some sort massive karmic change. Now whether Obama's team is a wink-wink acknowledgment the Bush doctrine was essentially right or not remains to be seen.

Which brings me to a comment a friend of mine recently made. In our discussion about how to prepare cherry crostatta, the misguided reasoning of the Canadian coalition folly forces and contemporary American politics he said, "history will judge Bush poorly."

Pretty presumptuous I thought. Geez, I mean, Bush put an end to the last remnants of the Treaty of Westphalia. He smashed the 'Risk' game board so to speak. He may have, wittingly or otherwise, in motion a new direction for international politics.

Then we wondered. Was it that crazy to go into Iraq if one thinks of the big picture? Notably the attempt to establish a stable and productive Arab country? What "if" it does become a model? What "if" it all begins to unfold during Obama's watch? Who will get the credit? Will it be spun in a manner that suggests Obama avoided "bad" missteps undertaken by Bush?

How can we possibly know what the long term implications are of Bush's foreign policies? Indeed, it's through the lenses of Iraq people tend to judge Bush even on domestic issues. The more extreme interpretations of Bush have lent itself to a type of hysterical herd mentality that repeats the same old line about his Presidency. Thus clouding sound perspectives.

This leads me to a comment I purged, stole, culled (whatever) from a thread on the Christian Science Monitor:

"What are Bush’s unhinged (to logic and history) critics going to do for their Bush Derangement Syndrome come January 20? Does it go into remission, or refocus on a new bete noire?"

I don't know how history will judge Bush. That's a game I wish not to play. I do know that once he leaves a sober assessment of his tenure will commence.