George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018) was the US president from 1989 to 1993. His son was George W. Bush, whose time as president, from 2001 to 2009, was twice as long and much more destructive. Another son, Jeb Bush, also wants to be president.
Also known as: Bush Sr, Bush the Elder, Bush I, Poppy, and, as the 41st president, Bush 41. Back in the 1990s he was just called George Bush.
Houston oilman: After being the son of a senator and Wall Street banker, a student at Yale, and a pilot in the Second World War, Bush moved to Texas and made his fortune as a Houston oilman. He was an oilman to the end. He not only fought to keep Iraq from taking over oil fields of the Persian Gulf, but he undermined attempts to fight global warming, to make the air clean, and to come up with renewable energy. Scientists knew about global warming back then. In fact Bush had the Congressional testimony of one them changed to play it down.
Fear-mongerer: As a rich White oilman he was quite fine with the way the US was going. All he had to offer ordinary White people was fear. He started with Willie Horton, a Black man whose crimes he played up to get elected, playing on the racist fears of White people. It was a classic move straight out of the racist Southern Strategy playbook. He got 63% of the White male vote. Then as president he moved onto Noriega of Panama and Saddam Hussein of Iraq, demonizing them and invading their countries. Yet Bush’s first state guest at the White House was Mobutu of Zaire, a monster by any measure. And Bush only seemed to have nice things to say about Ceauşescu of Romania – until his own people overthrew him.
Saddam Hussein was no angel, to be sure, but he was not the one who bombed Iraq back to the 1800s, leading to the deaths of 55,000 children, going above and beyond any military necessity.
Unlike his son, Bush at least had the good sense not to march on Baghdad, rightfully fearing a quagmire.
Moral leadership: Bush expected people in the US to be so concerned about the sovereignty of Kuwait when Saddam Hussein invaded it that they would willingly give the lives of their own sons and daughters – and yet turn a blind eye when Bush himself invaded Panama.
Black people: He raised money for the United Negro College Fund, yet as president he pushed the War on Drugs and the building of prisons, leading to the mass incarceration of Black men. He voted for the Fair Housing Act of 1968 as a Houston Congressman, yet opposed the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 (the famous one) and 1990. But worst of all, he put Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, an Uncle Tom and known opponent of affirmative action. In 2013 Thomas helped to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that Martin Luther King Jr marched for. Bush is dead but his legacy lives on.
– Abagond, 2018.
See also:
- son: George W. Bush
- wife: The Barbara Bush Award for Deluded Whiteness
- global warming
- The Southern strategy
- Iraq
- Panama
- Lumumba – replaced by Mobutu thanks to the US
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- Fair Housing Act of 1968
- affirmative action
- The mass incarceration of black men
- Clarence Thomas
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It’s classless beyond belief to write something like this about someone who died a couple days ago. Not cool, dude.
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Death did not wipe away his record. Yours is a brainless comment. Hitler died 73 years ago, yet his deeds are negatively commented on.
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Abagond, this is a great commentary to remind people of the evil that this man instigated in this country and beyond. Senior makes Junior seem like an amateur. Yet Bush, Sr. appeared not to take to Trump – probably because Trump doesn’t have the intricate talent as this President did: to take out the middle of both sides and let them crash to destructive purposes.
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I never felt he cared about the welfare of black Americans so I am apathetic about his death.
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It’s ridiculous to compare a centrist president with a genocidal dictator.
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Are any of you familiar with this? Check out the video.
(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uW2U5L17lDQ)
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@ Eric W
I remember when Bush was president. What I find sickening is all the gushing coverage he is getting. “The last president of the Greatest Generation”, “a man of faith”, etc. It is nauseating. The Hitler comparison in this case is apt. Not to say that Bush was “as bad as Hitler”, but that as an evil figure of history his crimes need to be remembered, not whitewashed. If it had been your mother who had just died, I would have to be some kind of cold-blooded asshole to bad mouth her, but Bush is not at that level.
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@ dorisjean23
Well said.
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@ Eric W
“Centrist” is a wholly subjective term.
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Putting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court is beyond vile and despicable.
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This post was very accurate, even though at his funeral today, George Herbert Walker Bush was portrayed as a great and honorable man of humanity. Your article should have been used in the eulogies instead, because 41 will buried in the minds of these Americans as a saint. Thank you for your analysis.
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@ Eric W: Perhaps you should come out of your bubble of “whiteness” and learn facts about how this President made decisions that hurt Black Americans. Stop being a dim bulb and enlighten yourself.
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@ Abagond
“I remember when Bush was president. What I find sickening is all the gushing coverage he is getting.”
I keep seeing the word “gentle” used to describe him. He wasn’t gentle to the children of Iraq.
Another thing H.W. did was to continue Reagan’s criminally negligent policy of inaction on AIDS.
Bush has many, many, many deaths and ruined lives on his hands.
Although he didn’t invade Baghdad, arguably his actions in 1990 ultimately led to that outcome.
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And his last tweet was congratulating Senator Susan Collins for nominating Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. (Ugh)🤬
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@ Solitaire
I agree. The government has a duty to do what it can to defend against deadly diseases. Just as it has a duty to defend against foreign invasions.
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No president is perfect, and Bush made some mistakes, but the good outweighed the bad.
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@ Eric W.
What good things did he do?
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@ Eric W
Yes, do tell.
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How about we start with his service in WWII?
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Interesting summary of Bush’s record on race and civil rights. I remember the speech about the drug sale outside the White House, but I didn’t know that the DEA agents manipulated a high school kid into meeting them there just so Bush could make that claim in his speech. SMH.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/2197675002
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@ Eric W
Lots of people served in WW2. How does his service then surpass his commission of war crimes in Iraq as commander-in-chief?
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He committed no war crimes.
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/static.theintercept.com/amp/the-ignored-legacy-of-george-h-w-bush-war-crimes-racism-and-obstruction-of-justice.html
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https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/12/04/imperialist-in-chief-a-critical-history-of-george-h-w-bushs-war-on-iraq/
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@ Solitaire
I remember the horrific deaths at the Amiriyah air raid shelter. The US used a heavy bomb nicknamed “the Bunker Buster”. The name of the bomb itself is a clue to the intent to commit war crimes. It was a sickening episode.
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@ Afrofem
Also the “Highway of Death” where U.S. forces pounded retreating Iraqi soldiers and civilians, and according to some reports slaughtered those who were trying to surrender (which is a violation of the Geneva Covention).
Do you remember the photos of the charcoal bodies?
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7457952/amp
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Ran across another interesting article on Bush and race, tracing the impact in politics and legislation up to the present day.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna944576
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@ Solitaire
“Do you remember the photos of the charcoal bodies?”
I do. I remember video of Iraqi civilians pulling bits of bodies from the wreckage. The sadness and anger on their faces is something I will never forget.
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https://www.thenation.com/article/george-h-w-bush-icon-of-the-wasp-establishment-and-of-brutal-us-repression-in-the-third-world/
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So it was Iraq that invaded the US?. I didn’t know!
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@ Eric W
You need to come up with more than his military service. For a president that is damning with faint praise.
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Why has his peacetime crime against Iraqi children not been mentioned? “Mr. Embargo” G.H.W. Bush and his fellow criminals, Bill Clinton and baby Bush, maintained the embargo that killed more people than the wars against Iraq.
https://www.news18.com/news/world/we-only-remember-him-for-death-starvation-destruction-iraq-on-mr-embargo-george-hw-bush-1957137.html
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Interesting what this white Trumpeteer says about GHWB!
(https://youtu.be/zoEFehZqueg)
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@Joe
He lost me at the Illuminati and conspiracy BS. Should have just talked about the war crimes that are confirmed.
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The ‘bunker buster’ is supposed to be able to pnetrate like 30′ of dirt and a foot or so of concrete, put out an ‘air/fuel mixture’ and suck the oxygen out by ignition in an enclosed space, the ex soviet union gets the prize. I think for the biggest such ‘conventional’ munition.
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Ostensibly for gb1 or non-dubya? It doesnt hv the pow mia left is corporate
Ps hving it out with this fb client should represent v8driver in a hotlink
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A flag like a unit patch ish dont stop
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https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1247&context=nulr_online&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwj7jujN_bPfAhUG448KHbCwA7YQFjAAegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3lrROIx8iqa7BrtFpQrTRy
One shouldn’t always give Clarence Thomas such a hard time. He has faced his fair share of difficulties from whites and yet he still has an incisive mind.
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Don’t forget his tenure as head of the CIA, and all the turmoil happening in Latin America and the Middle East at the time. As well as countless assassinations and attempts of various political figures. I can’t say that he personally was responsible, but you have to wonder — especially if as head of the CIA, he has free reign in that regard.
I will give him credit for enacting the Americans With Disabilities Act, which made it easier for the disabled to live more productive lives, and offered protections from discrimination. But for the most part? Meh.
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Both Bushes had a thing for fighting Saddam Hussein. That’s all I remember, lol.
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