One thing I discuss with my students isn't necessarily the whole 'No one died when Clinton lied' bumper stickers they have around here [which really only serves to remind me that Clinton lied - go figure. Took me ages to get the 'Bush lied, people died' reference.
].
Anyway - we discuss whether today, in 2008, can we TRULY know if going into Iraq was a huge mistake or the smartest thing we ever did [or somewhere in the middle]. The answer is - regardless of what anyone thinks now - we CAN'T know. Twenty years from now, we could look back and say, 'You know, even after the Surge and the Iraqis taking over things went to hell in a handbasket. Surely there was a better way to oust Saddam and deal with his ties to terror and genocide and human rights violations.' *OR* We could say 'Wow. Look at all the democracies in the Middle East and the extreme decline in Radical Islam since Iraqi Freedom started. That was the right way to deal with Saddam. Wonder what would have happened if GHW had done more in '91.' [but I'll leave that argument out of here]
The answer is, we can't know until we have some time between us and the event. Presidents aren't 'graded' by historians [not the media and whoever who would likely give Bush whatever comes after F at the moment] for 10 or 15 or 20 years after they leave office because it takes time to get perspective on what happened. *I* haven't seen a 'grading scale' with Clinton on it yet [that doesn't mean they're not out there, but I haven't seen one]. And actually, the last time I purposefully went out and sought one in... 04?, HW wasn't on there either. I've seen others since then but have only glanced at them as I wasn't looking for one to use at the time and I don't recall anything about them.
Anyway - that goes along with what Terry said. I think. Or someone else. I forget
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Carol
