What one is now reading about George H. W. Bush depends on the internet circles in which one runs. For many, they have read many wonderful descriptions of '41,' as he was known. He was a decent gentleman and a devoted public servant. He certainly represents a time when self-restraint was seen as necessary quality for being a public servant and as a strength, unlike today. And while some conservatives were upset because he was not conservative enough, one only needs to read the descriptions by some on the Left to see the need to balance criticisms of him. Most of those criticisms revolve around his leading of the CIA before his presidency and his use of the military during. His invasion of Panama and his short-lived war against Saddam Hussein are reasons for most of the Left's criticisms of him.
How we understand '41' depends on the context from which we speak. Here, I am not talking about the context provided by one's ideology. Rather, I am talking about the events by which one understands the worlds and one's government. For example, while she lived, my mom and I would have very vigorous debates over what it means to support our nation and its policies. My mom was part of the the WW II generation who believed that one must always support what America was doing in the world. After all, such support was needed to win WW II and it was clear that America, as it was in WW II, was in danger of being attacked and even defeated by its current enemies.
However, my generation saw the betrayal of our nation by our government under several administrations as seen in their prosecution of the Vietnam War. That war was about the reunification of a nation but was marketed to us civilians as an us vs. them war to prevent a domino effect that would lead to Communist domination of the world. Over 58,000 American troops were killed in that unnecessary war and many more suffered from the harsh mental and physical effects of fighting in a war. Thus, many in my generation became cynical of our government's foreign policies and with good reason.
So while my mom urged me to unquestionably support America's foreign ventures, I tried to convince her to put her own government and its foreign policies on trial. According to the context of our backgrounds, we both had valid points to make.
So how should we judge George H. W. Bush. Was he the saint that people wish to remember as or was he a murderous war monger as seen in his invasion of Panama and his prosecution of the First Persian Gulf War? Here we should note that in the latter engagement, the US violated many standards expressed in the Geneva conventions in attacking Iraqi civilian infrastructure and a civilian shelter. The combination of the destruction of Iraqi infrastructure along with sanctions that followed caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children from the 1990s through the beginning of Geroge W. Bush's Presidency. We should note that the Iraqi civilian deaths from that first war and the sanctions was one of the reasons for the 9/11 attacks.
However, we should note that despite how much many of my fellow leftists would enthusiastically condemn his use of the military, we need to understand that '41' was operating from a WW II mentality. That is after seeing the results of pre-WW II isolationism, undoubtedly, George H. W. Bush saw both his nation acting as a point of light in a world that needed such a point of light. This should damper some of vitriol coming from the Left regarding Bush's use of the military. Unfortunately, American imperialism, which has replaced isolationism, seems not to be the answer as seen in the horrific results it produces. Thus, we should note that while trying to understand Bush's perspective on foreign policies, context, though dampening some criticisms, does not leave him off the hook. Some of his foreign policy decisions led to the unnecessary deaths of many civilians, both Panamanian and Iraqi. And though the context of Bush's view of the word might lend some innocence to his foreign policy decisions, it doesn't take a way from the vast amount of suffering that resulted.
Like most of us, George H. W. Bush is neither the saint that some wish to remember him as nor the son of the devil that others wish to portray him as. Like most of us, George H. W. Bush has a mixed record and we should note our own mixed records before enthusiastically criticizing him. But one thing can be positively said about '41,' his extraordinary exercise in self-restraint and attempts to take a balanced approach to problems as he saw them are sorely missed today.
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