Few times in world history has so much of the world come to the aid and support of one country; I cannot recall a single time when so much of the world has come to pledge so much support to the world's sole superpower as was the case following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
President Bush has managed to accomplish an amazing feat - he found a way not only to deteriorate the vast majority of global support in an unprecedented short period of time, but managed to transform the support for America into contempt and disdain in countries that were once strong American allies.
Three years ago, President Bush initiated a war that the world, the Iraqis, the United Nations, our allies, nor many Americans supported. The war, which was based on lies and misconceptions, was fought for a variety of changing reasons to best benefit the president. It started out to rid the world of a growing threat followed by disarming a country that possessed weapons of mass destruction and then to make life better for the Iraqi people. Looking back, Iraq could not have been a threat to any other nation, did not have a single weapon of mass destruction and the people are largely worse off today than they were under Saddam Hussein; certainly a civil war would be very unlikely today if the dictator was still governing the crippled state.
By launching the war in the names of the 9/11 victims, he used thousands of tragedies for evil. He launched the war, if you recall, to better secure America but the only thing that has come is a more dangerous and anti-American world.
If President Bush had worked with the U.N. and our allies instead of launching an unjust invasion of a sovereign state, perhaps Iran would not be so close to acquiring weapons of mass destruction as our troops would not stretched so thin and our reputation around the world would not be so eroded.
Certainly, 2,317 American troops would not have returned home in body bags nor would 17,004 brave soldiers have suffered war injuries. As for the Iraqi people, despite Hussein's numerous atrocities, it seems very unlikely that between 33,679 and 37,795 Iraqi souls would be lost if not for the war.
The only hope on the horizon is that in 960 days, America will have the opportunity to select a new President who will hopefully begin the excruciatingly long process to repair the still incomprehensible wounds that will surely become the Bush legacy.
May God bless America and our troops serving so courageously overseas in a war not of their choosing.