Readers expounded on the lackluster legacy of the Bush years, despite our positive cover story. One asked, why the "last-minute spit shine"? Another added, "America will take years to recover," while a third compared Bush to Harry Truman, who "is now recognized as one of the best presidents America ever had."
Assessing the Bush Presidency
I read with great curiosity Fareed Zakaria's Aug. 18/Aug. 25 cover story "What Bush Got Right." When you are the president of the United States, you simply do not have the luxury of learning on the job. George W. Bush made too many mistakes over the past seven years. He is responsible for the loss of so many lives, American and other nationalities, which could have been avoided had he been more of a visionary. He even lost the moral authority to condemn nations like Russia when it attacked Georgia. A measure of the failure of the Bush presidency is when a weekly like yours runs a cover story enumerating what he did that was right. In the case of any other president, you would have expounded on the legacy that president leaves.
Kumar Saurabh
Sahibabad Ghaziabad, India
I appreciate your guts in publishing the cover headline "What Bush Got Right." This comes at a time when the world hates America just because Bush is president. Although widely derided for his actions, approach and activities as commander in chief, he did a few strategically important things to benefit America in the long term. Bush brought Libya back into the fold of responsible nations and rewarded Muammar Kaddafi for abandoning the pursuit of WMDs and handing over terrorists for justice. This achievement was underplayed by the press. And let's not forget the No Child Left Behind legislation that offers parents greater educational options for their children and helps close the achievement gap between minority and white students. Bush rightly assembled an exceedingly loyal team in his vice president, cabinet and advisers who did not have an agenda of their own. In short, Bush's presidency bears similarity to that of Harry Truman. Truman was also derided in his day specifically for sacking the hugely popular Gen. Douglas MacArthur. But today we recognize Truman as one of the best presidents America ever had.
C. P. Anandasubramanian
Chennai, India
Throughout Fareed Zakaria's article, he lists the president's disastrous failures and then suggests that America's next president must carefully consider the few grudging changes Bush made during the last two years of his presidency. Are these reparative measures what Zakaria means by "What Bush Got Right"? Now is no time to grant Bush credit for intelligent moves. The world knows that his record remains one of ignorance, obstinacy, failure and missed opportunities. Our country will take years to recover.
David Hendrickson
Fresno, California
Fareed Zakaria asks, rhetorically: "If the U.N. Security Council were to be set up today, would 40 percent of the vetoes be given to European powers?" He does have a point. But then, he fails to mention that another 40 percent in the body's current structure is made up of countries with hardly any democratic credentials to their names. The way in which Russia and China were allowed to use their veto power, recently in tandem against sanctions to be imposed on the regime in Zimbabwe, has been disconcerting, to say the least. I, for one, have heard no sensible proposals from either of the two U.S. presidential candidates concerning badly needed reforms of the Security Council. The composition of the five permanent members is an anachronism dating back to the early days of the cold war. I strongly advocate abolishing the power to veto clear majority decisions. A case in point: the aggression Russia increasingly wreaks on its neighbors will never meet with official condemnation, simply because its ambassador knows when to raise his hand or which button to push. The institution founded to prevent unnecessary wars and to further peace among peoples is in danger of turning itself into a laughingstock.
Werner Radtke
Paderborn, Germany
There is no doubt that the hopes and dreams for a prosperous and peaceful world inspired by the leadership of Bill Clinton were dashed by Bush as he dismantled the legacy of one of the great leaders of the 20th century. Partisan proclivities prevented Bush from building on the achievements of Clinton. Indeed, this is the tragedy of political relations in many countries.
Tony Nwaka
Asaba, Nigeria
Fareed Zakaria points out that U.S. foreign policy has shifted significantly in areas such as America's approach to China and Taiwan. Taiwan, with a new government formed in May, has shifted its tactics as well. President Ma Ying-jeou has proposed the idea of "flexible diplomacy," whereby a certain degree of mutual trust will be built up across the Taiwan Strait and later extended to the international arena. So far, Ma has delivered several substantial measures such as actualizing regular direct flights to and from mainland China, allowing the conversion of Chinese currency in Taiwan and advancing a diplomatic truce. Yet obviously, whether Ma is on the right track with his new thinking depends largely on Beijing. After all, it takes two to tango.
Ben Shao,
Director, Press Division Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
New York, New York
Why is NEWSWEEK attempting to put a last-minute spit shine on the legacy of the worst president in the nation's history? Do you really believe that a few hours spent playing patty-cake with Kim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin could redeem the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, or the destruction of America's esteem among other nations, or the creation of a deficit that will take generations to resolve or, above all, the rape of our Constitution and our civil liberties?
Edward Fagen
Middlebury, Vermont
While Bush has made mistakes, his good decisions deserve more credit than most Americans give him. Bush was right when he began to rid our society of infanticide by signing the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. He can also be credited with cutting income taxes, ridding us of the ridiculous marriage penalty and giving seniors better prescription-drug benefits. And in the debates of 2000, he called for more oil drilling in our own country, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Steve James
Camillus, New York
Is Bush allowing himself to be influenced by the views of his cabinet, Congress and the rest of the planet? Has he learned from those with greater understanding that arrogance and bluster are insufficient as a foreign policy? Has he realized he can't really see into the soul of a world-class adversary and that simplistic gut feelings, intuition and muscle pale in the face of the immense complexities of world leadership? Have his far-too-recent changes in policy been inspired by an enlightened world view and concern for humanity, or are they a pathetic attempt to salvage his legacy? January can't come soon enough.
John Thomsen
Los Gatos, California
Berlusconi
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s New Term
What do you mean by the Aug. 18/ Aug. 25 headline "Miracle in 100 Days"? There is no miracle. Silvio Berlusconi has done little for Italy. He has only passed laws to protect himself and his multimillion-dollar media empire. No democratic country should ever have such a person as their leader. Berlusconi won his landslide victory because he controls so many information outlets—state television and three other networks. One of the first things he did when he came into office was to quickly push through a bill that made him immune from prosecution; he nevertheless remains accused of fraud, bribery and corruption. In the interim, hundreds of immigrants continue to pour into the country. They are taken in by the Italian Coast Guard, clothed and fed, and most remain here with no job prospects or housing. As a result, crime continues to soar. Furthermore, Italians face economic difficulty with their meager salaries and uncertain jobs while our members of Parliament are the highest paid in Europe. How can NEWSWEEK fail to see and reflect upon the malignant influence Berlusconi has on Italian democracy? He represents the most serious threat to democracy in Western Europe since 1945.
Gillian Edwards Casini
Rome, Italy
I found the title of Jacopo Barigazzi's article "Miracle in 100 Days" on Silvio Berlusconi's new term misleading. The bill for officeholders' immunity is outrageous since Italy's prime minister has been involved in many criminal proceedings. Sending troops throughout Italy to harass immigrants and small criminals (while the mafia and the Camorra still thrive) is embarrassing. It is no surprise that he has a high approval rating, since he controls so much of the media. The result of Berlusconi's 100-day miracle is that Italy has a worse economy; no prospects for raising economic growth, wages and welfare; and has spiraled into fear and racism.
Massimiliano Ruggeri
Rome, Italy
A New Generation of Robots
The implicit intention of "Why Should We Be Friends?" (Aug. 18/Aug. 25) seems for readers to get the impression that Japanese robotic companies are inferior to their American counterparts due to the obsessiveness for a "humanoid" style. But most of the robotic products you mentioned, such as Asimo, are just prototypes and still in the process of development. Thus it is inappropriate to compare those Japanese products with, say, Roomba. My attention was riveted by the fact that American robot design derives from military technology.
Kyoichi Kunimi
Fujisawa City, Japan
What
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Chernobyl
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Describes
The term "cultural Chernobyl" seems to have entered the American vernacular—I see it even appears in Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English online—but that doesn't mean it should have, or that NEWSWEEK ought to use it, as it does in its Periscope headline for an article on the spread of the Ultimate Fighting phenomenon to Europe ("A New Cultural Chernobyl," Aug. 11). Is it really in good taste to appropriate another country's national tragedy and use it as shorthand to mean "something terrible" in reference to just about anything? On another front, in the Aug. 18/Aug. 25 issue, writer Steve Tuttle refers to America's obsession with Crocs footwear as a "fashion Chernobyl" ("Anything But Crocs"). In order for this phrase to make sense, I have to empty the word "Chernobyl" of most of its meaning. I have to strip away its connotations; forget the radioactive dust that contaminated a town not far from Kiev, and the fallout that traveled to do harm elsewhere; forget the lives that have been lost or otherwise undermined from that day in April 1986 forward, the cancer victims and the children born saddled with various deformities. That's a lot I have to forget if I just want the word to mean a disaster of some sort, which surely, in this context, I do. The word "meltdown" may have taken on a figurative meaning, but "Chernobyl" refers to a specific tragedy. Careless use of the word disrespects victims of that tragedy and also degrades the English language.
Kirsten Giebutowski
Poltava, Ukraine
Return of Overseas Chinese
China's weakness lies in its "inbred" closed culture and in its discomfort with the historical fact the West surged ahead of China starting in the 15th century ("Rise of the Sea Turtles," Aug. 18/Aug. 25). Until China overcomes this inferiority/superiority complex and until it accepts other cultures as world partners, China cannot lead, no matter how industrialized it becomes. China will follow the path of Nazi Germany or Communist Russia and will set the rest of the world against it or implode from the lack of freedom. I hope the thousands of Overseas Chinese returning to China, especially those from the United States and Britain, will miss things like not being intimidated by the authorities and freedom of expression. I am hopeful those Chinese will be like a Trojan horse and help China awaken its latent human aspirations for freedom.
Victor Lopez
Seville, Spain
Your perceptive report on china's students returning from study abroad recalls the following: where enough visiting students from one foreign culture cluster together—familiar food, language, etc.—they engage far less with their host country. If they are sent to study, say, electronic engineering, outside of classes they can form a comfortable home-culture cocoon and get their main impressions of American life only from TV and the nearest mall with fast takeout. I have also observed, at two universities in Pacific Russia, clusters of People's Republic of China-sponsored students contracted for two years' study of Russian and a technical specialty. They lived in one enclave, had classes just for them and never mixed with students of their host country. How's that for "international understanding"?
Dale M. Heckman
Davis, California