By l.t. Dravis

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thursday, January 15, 2009 – George W. Bush gave his farewell, ‘feel-good’, address to the country tonight to defend his version of his record over the past eight years.

So, what’s the truth?

Let’s compare what he said to what he did . . . and then, you tell me . . . am I wrong when I say, The Smirk is real?

WHAT HE SAID: “For eight years, it has been my honor to serve as your President.”

WHAT HE DID: The man who said tonight that ‘it has been my honor to serve as your President’, told FOX News on December 18, 2008 that he didn’t care about what the American people thought of his decisions and policies. In fact, he said, “I’ve had, hell, a lot of serious challenges. What matters to me is I didn’t compromise my soul to be a popular guy.”

WHAT HE SAID: “The first decade of this new century has been a period of consequence – a time set apart.”

WHAT HE DID: The first decade of this new century has been a period of consequence primarily because George W. Bush lied to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003 without cause, killing over 4,200 Americans, injuring more than 30,000 Americans, killing and wounding a hundred thousand or more Iraqi men, women, and children, and costing American taxpayers $588,525,042,916.99 as of 9:32 PM, EST, January 15, 2008.

WHAT HE SAID: “And above all, I thank the American people for the trust you have given me.”

WHAT HE DID: George W. Bush took an oath, twice, to protect, preserve, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Yet he violated the trust of the American people when he worked behind the scenes to dilute or even get rid of constitutional protections for U.S. citizens and purposefully circumvented constitutional protections by authorizing a secret program to eavesdrop on Americans in violation of an existing law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

WHAT HE SAID: “This evening, my thoughts return to the first night I addressed you from this house - September 11, 2001. That morning, terrorists took nearly 3,000 lives in the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. I remember standing in the rubble of the World Trade Center three days later, surrounded by rescuers who had been working around the clock. I remember talking to brave souls who charged through smoke-filled corridors at the Pentagon and to husbands and wives whose loved ones became heroes aboard Flight 93. I remember Arlene Howard, who gave me her fallen son's police shield as a reminder of all that was lost. And I still carry his badge.

WHAT HE DID: George W. Bush failed to prevent the attacks of September 11, 2001. Despite the fact that U.S. intelligence sources were reporting higher-than-normal levels of terrorist communications around the world, as of June, 2001, there had not been a single Cabinet-level meeting on terrorism. On September 4, 2001, Bush administration Counterterrorism Chief Richard Clarke urged officials to prepare for a terrorist attack that could kill hundreds if not thousands of Americans. George W. Bush refused to acknowledge Mr. Clarke’s warnings and within a week, thousands of American heroes and their families would pay the price for his refusal.

WHAT HE SAID: “And to all our men and women in uniform listening tonight: There has been no higher honor than serving as your Commander in Chief.”

WHAT HE DID: George W. Bush’s lopsided vision of establishing a democracy in Iraq on the lives and limbs of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings was mismanaged from day one. If he was truly honored to serve as Commander in Chief, why did he send too few troops to Iraq in 2003, why did he allow his dim-witted Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, to disband the Iraqi army and leave caches of weapons all over the country for militias, Al Qaeda, and other warring factions to use to kill and wound American troops? Why did he allow hundreds if not thousands of precious U.S. troops to be killed and wounded in Iraq because they were not issued body armor? And, why did his administration allow wounded veterans to be neglected and mistreated at the Walter Reed National Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.?

WHAT HE SAID: “When challenges to our prosperity emerged, we rose to meet them. Facing the prospect of a financial collapse, we took decisive measures to safeguard our economy.”

WHAT HE DID: George W. Bush’s failed policies caused the ‘challenges to our prosperity’ (challenges, after all, do not ‘emerge’, they are caused). This is the president who wasted the budget surplus left by Bill Clinton and more than doubled the national debt to nearly $11 trillion with year-after-year deficit spending. George W. Bush caved into lobbyists, backed away from proposed regulations on easy-credit, interest-only, no money-down mortgages, and helped precipitate the ‘mortgage meltdown’. And, what about the ‘decisive measures to safeguard our economy’ George W. Bush sounds so proud of? Those measures simply put American taxpayers in debt to the tune of more than $1 trillion in bailouts to pay for Bush’s failure to protect the economy in the first place.

WHAT HE SAID: “America must maintain our moral clarity. I have often spoken to you about good and evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere.”

WHAT HE DID: George W. Bush wasn’t worried about ‘good and evil’ when he supported ‘rendering’, ‘water boarding’ or the arrest and illegal detention of suspected terrorists for years. And, when George W. Bush said tonight that, ‘Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere,’ how does he square that statement with the forced imposition of American-style democracy on innocent Iraqis?  

AND THEN HE SAID: “And so, my fellow Americans, for the final time: Good night. May God bless this house and our next president. And may God bless you and our wonderful country.”

AND SO WE SAY: “And, so, George W. Bush, for the final time: Good night and good riddance. May God forgive you for the hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries you’ve caused . . . but, most of all, may God make you go away – quietly – while we pray we never see your kind again.

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