Assessing The War on Terror after Four Years

Sometimes, an assessment has multiple assessors, and sometimes they assign widely variant grades.

The US War on Terror certainly has assessors who have assigned President Bush, Jr. grades from A to F.

The assessors with any real power have assigned it a grade of a C.

1. The first objective was the 2002 elections. For this, the continued destruction of Afghanistan, already reduced to rubble by many years of war, was sufficient to convince the US electorate that President Bush, Jr. was doing a great job.


2. The second objective was the 2004 elections. For this, reducing Iraq to rubble was sufficient to convince the US electorate the President Bush, Jr. was doing a great job.


3. The third objective was the 2006 elections, where, I’m afraid, continuing to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq failed to persuade the electorate.


4. The fourth objective was venal profit for friends of President Bush, Jr., and Halliburton has made so much profit that it has been forced to relocate to the tax haven of Dubai to avoid taxes, so again, President Bush, Jr.’s friends are grateful to him for a job well done.

Three out of four is a 75, or a solid C for the War on Terror under the American grading system. Not great, but certainly a passing grade.

Other assessors used different marking criteria, but these assessors have no real power. Some of them have advocated:

• Making life better for the Iraqis;


• Securing cheap oil;


• Serving accepted standards of International Justice;

and similar items. Based on his complete failure to achieve any of these objectives, these assessors have assigned President Bush, Jr. a grade of F. However, since these objectives are of no concern to anyone with any real power, they have a weight of zero on real world assessments.

Finally, one Iranian assessor, apparently grateful that Bush began bombing Iraq just in time for Iran’s biggest festival, blames the ignorance of the US electorate for Bush’s failure at objective number 3, and drops it from consideration, giving President Bush, Jr. a perfect score of 100%, for an A+.