George Bush’s Inauguration

Today, Jan 20th, 2005 George W. Bush was sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. I voted twice for the guy, but to tell you the truth, I’m not sure about him. I not sure about this Iraq war, his plans to free the world, and his fix for Social Security. First let’s talk about the war. He was in an awful hurry to invade Iraq, and now that we are there the terrorists are picking off our troops one by one (many times more than that) in addition to killing many Iraqis. We were warned that we were terrible at nation building and the proof occurs every day as we watch the disgruntled Sunnis spreading violence across the country and trying to create a civil war before our eyes. My guess is we need triple the troops we now have to get this mess under control. Secondly, just how does he plan to spread freedom throughout the world? Even if we overlook the self righteous tone of the message, just what does that mean and to whom does it apply. Are we going to boycott those that he judges to be not so free? Does he mean military intervention; I don’t think so. Is he going to do it with just dialogue or talk? It sounds lofty, but if he uses anything but talk, we are in for more international tension at the least or more war at the worst. Maybe he should put his efforts on domestic problems like Social Security, my third concern. We have a real problem now that will put the program in the red in 2018. Does George Bush have a program to head that off? No. He wants to solve the problem by getting our kids to put their security in a private system, which may help much later than the crisis year, but will carry a large transition cost and not do anything for the system when it is seriously needed, near term. He and we are asking our children to carry a very large burden to support the baby boomers. George Bush was elected with a majority control of congress, but, in my opinion, I’m not sure he will lead us to a better era given what I’m hearing now. Only after the next year or two, will we know for sure.