“Bush Is No Churchill; He Is a Chamberlain”

When the U.S. president, George W. Bush, was asked during the presidential election campaign in 2000, which philosopher influenced him the most, he did not hesitate to answer, “Jesus Christ.” After he was elected, he looked to former leaders like the England’s former prime minister, Winston Churchill, and former U.S. presidents, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan as his role models.

His critics, however, say that President Bush resembles the antithesis of his heroes.

Churchill, the person who saved Europe-

A sculpture of Churchill that dates back from 1946, the year President Bush was born, sits right next to a sculpture of former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in the Oval Office.

Churchill, who even as a young politician foresaw the rise of Nazi Germany and demanded strong measures against him, is a big hero of the neoconservatives who lead the Bush administration. Former deputy defense minister Paul Wolfowitz holds a party for his friends on November 30 every year in honor of Churchill’s birthday.

Lynne Olson, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun who worked as a White House correspondent, stated in an article he contributed to the Washington Post that Churchill would be surprised to hear that President Bush aspires to be like him. Olson went on to say that Bush resembles Neville Chamberlain, Churchill’s predecessor. Neville said that he could take on enemy countries on his own, did not cooperate with neighbor nations, ceded himself great power, and ignored parliament.

Truman, who made plans during the Cold War-

President Bush considered the post-9-11 era to be a time of war against terror and tried to draft a master plan for the next 50 years. It was as if President Bush was emulating how Truman drafted a plan with strategists George Kennan and Dean Acheson.

President Bush’s Iraq War, however, never came close to Truman’s achievements like the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe, the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the conclusion of the Second World War.

Reagan, who achieved the feat of small government-

President Bush tried to employ former U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s economic policies. President Bush tried to stimulate investment and consumption from high-income taxpayers by exempting taxes on earnings from capital. He also achieved yearly average growth of three percent through the trickle down effect.

Many say, however, that President Bush failed to achieve small government success because of spending related to the Iraq War.

srkim@donga.com