How Will the Legacy of Joe Biden Match up Against George W. Bush's Legacy?

God Told Bush to Attack Iraq; AIPAC Told Biden to Support Genocide

“God told me to strike Iraq, so I did”

~George W Bush

“I will never abandon Israel, no matter what they do.”

-Joe Biden

With Biden’s term officially about to end, it makes sense to do some inventory: how Biden’s reckless war-hawking ranks compared to the recklessness of George W. Bush. As Shakespeare didn’t quite say, “Comparisons are odious”. This is mostly true, but this is a good time to see how our policy from 20+ years ago compares to current times.

Up until the Biden administration, I believed that George W. Bush and his key henchman, Dick Cheney, were the most dangerous militarists of the last several decades. But now, it’s a fair question to ask: Is Biden worse?

Both Bush and Biden seemed incapable of governing, and both were inarticulate. Both gave the public many reasons to doubt they were running the country. For Joe Biden, it was due to his apparent cognitive decline. George Bush was often incomprehensible and seemed overmatched cognitively. Both brought the same result: A significant expansion of the US War State.

Bush is currently held in higher regard by the media than when he left office. But don’t let that fool you. Perhaps it’s the passage of time, or maybe it was the media’s rehabilitation of George W from a mass killer to a cuddly old man who gave Michelle Obama a mint at a funeral. The more likely culprit is that US foreign policy has continued along the path of George Bush, so he doesn’t seem as out of place as he used to. The media has cleansed Bush’s character, so it is now harder to hold him up as an example of a mass murderer.

Cheney went from being called “Hitler” to being celebrated by the Democratic party for endorsing them. Harris foolishly invoked that endorsement as a positive.

When George Bush was in power, there were still pockets of dissent. There were those arguing in the mainstream that the UN had just inspected Iraq and found no weapons of mass destruction. There is almost zero dissent in the mainstream media about the Ukraine War. The media play down the United States’ role in arming and funding the Gaza War. However, one can also make the argument that the run-up to the Iraqi war was the pinnacle of US propaganda. Any dissent was crushed under the weight of an endless barrage of pro-war agitprop.

The ideology behind the Iraqi war was based on a think-tank document called the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). It was signed by the worst of the worst US warmongers. Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld. It called for one of the greatest oxymorons ever: for the US to be a Benevolent Hegemon. In reality, it was a call for imperialism. The PNAC called for regime change in Iraq, along with other countries.

There is a strong argument to be made that our foreign policy has gotten even more depraved. We have run out of easy targets and are now picking fights with nuclear-armed countries.

The ideology for the Ukraine war was built on policy expressed by former National Security Advisor to Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski. In his book, The Grand Chessboard, he wrote about how the US can best maintain its position as a world leader by suppressing other countries and shaping US policy in its favor. Brzezinski leveraged writings from the early 20th century that remaining as a world hegemon begins with weakening Russia.

Brzezinski also called for…yes…you got it… the US to be a Benevolent Hegemon.

The Iraqi war caught Americans at their most vulnerable. 9/11 caused shockwaves across the US. Not letting a good crisis go to waste, as Machiavelli was so fond of saying, Bush amped up tensions by concocting a story that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 and had WMDs. The public was scared, enraged, and appalled, and they just wanted to see actions taken - any actions would do. A lack of will to reason and a steady stream of proselytizing the war was an easy sell.

The Ukraine war was also a media blitz. Both parties and their media were equally culpable in shilling for the war. It was unopposed. Critics were silenced despite the greater danger that the war posed. Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world and sees NATO on their border as an existential threat. The dangers of not allowing public discussion about this cannot be overstated. “Russia as an enemy” has long been ingrained in the US, so this was a relatively easy war to sell.

It was the same narrative for both wars: a new Hitler-type dictator was on the rise and must be stopped before the world ends. We must fight for democracy. Why come up with a new script when the old one works so well? Despite the US record of supporting dictators and, overthrowing democratically elected governments, and installing dictators, the script continues to work remarkably well.

Both Biden and Bush earn many “evil points.” Which of the two gets the “greater evil award”? Considering that the Iraqis couldn’t have gotten us into World War III and that they weren’t in possession of nuclear arms, Biden has to get the edge for amping up a war with a nuclear-armed Russia. Biden gets extra “evil points” for breaking up a peace treaty that Russia and Ukraine were close to signing. This war has also pushed China, Iran, and Russia closer together. Biden earns additional evil points for continuing to escalate the war as a lame-duck president. Biden pretending to be anti-war during his campaign earns more evil points.

The Gaza “war” takes things to another level. The ICC has already indicted Israel for “probable genocide.” Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International have also made the genocide claim. On the way out, Biden has handed another 8 billion to Israel. Pretending to be powerless over stopping a genocide earns him even more evil points.

Now, a cease-fire has been agreed upon. Israel will most likely go on a killing spree before it goes into effect. The credit might go to Biden, but that would be a miscarriage of justice. Biden was the lynchpin to this slaughter.

Bush/Cheney are often cited as one entity because many don’t believe that Bush had enough understanding to do that alone. Due to Biden’s debilitation, his time in power should be referred to as Biden/Blinken. Undoubtedly, the Sociopath of State, Antony Blinken, had too much of a say in this administration. We are more unsafe as a planet because of the last four years. The animosity towards the West continues to build.

Both administrations were reigns of terror. Both were savages. Biden just took it to the next level. He will be the worst until the next monster gets into power with an even more savage agenda. The same war script will be used and will likely work again.

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