Bush institute of Management om Dallas Texas?

Failures to Communicate
Tuesday 14 April 2009

by: Richard Cohen | Visit article original @ The Washington Post


George W. Bush. (Photo: Getty Images)

Former president George W. Bush and some of his White House aides are gathering in Dallas this week to plan the future George W. Bush Policy Institute. There, I guess, they will ponder grand themes and marble foyers, but I propose they begin by simply renaming the place. I suggest naming it the "George W. Bush Institute of Management Failure" and dedicating it to studying how this presidency went so wrong - a task as big as Texas itself.

Bush's tenure was truly remarkable. He left office with the lowest presidential poll ratings in 60 years, two wars begun and not ended, and the deepest recession since the Great Depression. If it's true that we learn from our mistakes, Bush's eight years represent a bonanza of lessons.

What commends the Bush presidency to further study was its sheer managerial ineptitude. This is irony aplenty for a man not known for irony. Bush's one area of expertise, after all, supposedly was in management. Not only had he been a businessman, but he had graduated from Harvard Business School. Bush was the Decider. He was a delegator. He was precise and punctual - early to the office, early out of the office and a clean desk at all times. Wow!

Conventional wisdom holds that the bungling of the Iraq war was a consequence of ideology run amok. Maybe. But it was also an example of awful management. Whether you supported the war or opposed it, you have to concede that it should have ended years ago and, along with the invasion of Grenada, be a fit dissertation subject for a desperate PhD candidate and not, as it remains, a festering debacle.

At the insistence of Donald Rumsfeld, the war was fought with too few troops, and then, when the country was occupied, too few troops were there to maintain law and order. Matters were made infinitely worse when L. Paul Bremer, Rumsfeld's designated viceroy, disbanded the Iraqi army, freeing a good many armed and unemployed young men to shoot the place up. Bremer also purged Baath Party members from the government, leaving precisely no one in senior positions who knew anything. This, the evidence suggests, was modeled on the Bush White House itself.

Had Bush, Rumsfeld and Bremer performed better, the war might have ended a lot sooner. It finally took the surge to get things under control - and that may yet turn out to be too optimistic a statement. Still, the surge would not have been necessary had the war been handled competently from the beginning.

The war in Afghanistan waged against the Taliban, which had provided Osama bin Laden with sanctuary, was similarly mishandled. Once again, too few troops were sent to do too big a job. Good managers know how to make choices. Bush not only chose wrongly when he gave Iraq precedence over Afghanistan, but he chose not to choose at all when he thought both wars could be fought on the cheap - no draft, no tax hike, no sacrifice from the general public.

The Bush Institute of Management Failure should also look into how the administration was so late in noticing that the country was slipping into a profound recession. This should be coupled with a look-see at how Bush's various appointees failed to regulate the banking, insurance, housing and mortgage industries. (Have I mentioned Hurricane Katrina and "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job?" No? Just as well.)

Bush and his aides ought to devote time to what went wrong at the Justice Department. It was politicized and mismanaged to the point where even the Senate noticed. U.S. attorneys apparently had to pass political muster, the Constitution was interpreted along monarchical lines, and somehow the trial of Ted Stevens was so botched that his conviction was thrown out. Alberto Gonzales, a Bush crony, was supervised from the White House by Harriet Miers, an old Bush friend whose qualification for the job was that she was an old Bush friend.

If Bush and his aides do get around to politics, it is my fondest wish that they ask the always voluble Karl Rove - that latter-day Mark Hanna who was going to create a Republican era to last 30 or 40 years - what happened. Rove has reduced the Republican Party to himself, Rush Limbaugh and a scattering of red ties in Congress that only he can name. He has so very much to teach us.

Bush's presidency - rich in lessons - should keep everyone occupied deep into the night. If it's not too late - and especially for those already critical of Barack Obama - let me suggest dessert.

How's humble pie?
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Comments
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If only Smedley D. Butler
Fri, 04/17/2009 - 01:49 — J L G (not verified)

If only Smedley D. Butler were here to give an updated assessment on the benefactors of the most recent two wars and this past presidency. The U.S. Marine Corps General did a fabulous job illuminating the corruption and "benefits" of wars of the 19th and early 20th century in War is a Racket. Read it and weep. Those who say, "Follow the money," are right on target. That is where you'll find the criminals and fat-cats who found fertile fields in the Bush-Cheney years.

A proverb I first heard some
Thu, 04/16/2009 - 13:18 — bogi666 (not verified)
A proverb I first heard some 40 years ago "NEVER HIRE A HARVARD M.B.A." FOR WHICH BUSH SHOULD BE THE POSTER BOY.Bush had his epiphany to be President in 1984 while watching a matinee showing of a science fiction movie. This was in his drugging/drinking days so who knows what hallucination he was having then. One of the things that are taught in business school is contingency planning should something go wrong with a project. Another is budgeting. Bush must have either missed those classes or was stoned or both.

Follow the leader and refuse

Thu, 04/16/2009 - 09:48 — Anonymous (not verified)
Follow the leader and refuse to prosecute anyone for anything. Fair is fair.
We need desperately to set

Thu, 04/16/2009 - 09:23 — Anonymous (not verified)
We need desperately to set up a citizens court. We need to clean house, both of them. Mr. Dejanjuk is still being persecuted after 60 years. Why not our terribles now? Let's not wait 60 years. If Bush attacked Israel we would have him hung by now.
Trashing Bush are we? Why

Wed, 04/15/2009 - 22:10 — Americonned (not verified)
Trashing Bush are we? Why not blame ourselves and do something about it? We can't wait for the government to do anything. We have to force they're hand. A letter and phone call campaign would do some good. Not just voting on line. Actually give them physical evidence that we are not happy. Bother them until they bother Bush.
WTC 7. All the answers are

Wed, 04/15/2009 - 13:07 — mysterioso (not verified)
WTC 7. All the answers are there but nobody's looking. Why is that?
You Will NEVER get such an

Wed, 04/15/2009 - 12:01 — Anonymous (not verified)
You Will NEVER get such an honest review of the BuSh Administration as long as almost all Media in America is now owned and operated by just a few huge Corporations...

A WAR-FOR-PROFIT IS MASS
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 07:21 — Always Ask WHY (not verified)
A WAR-FOR-PROFIT IS MASS MURDER. Forget "failure." The Bush Mafia goals were achieved with great success! They attained all they intended: mass controlled chaos, looting of the U.S. Treasury, dividing up the Iraqi oil fields among "friends", with the added bonus of perverted and depraved sexual torture, discussed in great in the Oval Officein, I'm sure, "satisfying", detail. They twisted minds with lying to an extent never known in the history of a U.S. president and vice-president and minions. Mass murder, torture, lies, treason, fraud. SICK, TWISTED, PERVERTED, INDIFFERENT TO HUMAN LIFE. THESE PEOPLE DESERVE TO ROT IN PRISON FOR THE REST OF THEIR NATURAL LIVES... UNDER A MICROSCOPE OF PSYCHIATRISTS IN ORDER TO DETERMINE HOW HUMAN BEINGS BECOME SO DETACHED AND DEPRAVED.

It should be studied.
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 05:49 — Anonymous (not verified)
It should be studied. Intensely. Senator John Kyl (Az) sent a letter to the NY Times recently espousing most of the tax and economic programs imposed by Bush II. Apparently the GOP has not learned anything in the last 28 years.

MISSION
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 05:24 — jstuv (not verified)
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! The Bush/Chaney Administration was able to succeed where Osama bin Laden failed. Should the crimes of treason, by the Bush/Chaney Administration, be overlooked, then these crimes of high treason will be repeated in future administrations.
The Allies conducted the Nürenberg Trials (in 1945 to 1949) for several reasons: A) To make aware that these crimes were actually committed,

B) To examine HOW these crimes were able to be committed,
C) Who committed these crimes and

D) To punish the criminals. Should the guilty not be punished, then, their Criminal Acts would be absolved and could easily be repeated. There would not be any justice. “The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government.”

Should the Bush/Chaney Administration (alleged) criminals not be prosecuted, not be brought to trial and not found guilty, then, like the Ronald Reagan Republican group, they will be glorified, deified and praised. With ALL the evidence available: Eyewitnesses, Documents, Dead Bodies, Remnants of Death Camps, Newsreel clips, piles of clothes, piles of shoes, piles of hair, piles of eyeglasses, piles of gold teeth –COLD HARD EVIDENCE-, there are Holocaust Deniers being celebrated, glorified and believed.

So, too, these (alleged) criminals will be praised and glorified for future generations. We will have not have learned from history –and the American society will repeat this debacle. With ALL the evidence available: Eyewitnesses, Documents, Dead Bodies, Remnants of Death Camps, Newsreel clips, piles of clothes, piles of shoes, piles of hair, piles of eyeglasses, piles of gold teeth –COLD HARD EVIDENCE-, there are Holocaust Deniers being celebrated, glorified and believed. So, too, these (alleged) criminals will be praised and glorified for future generations. We will have not have learned from history –and the American society will repeat this debacle.

Thank you for an excellent

Wed, 04/15/2009 - 04:59 — JustinaForJustice (not verified)
Thank you for an excellent synopsis of the most glaring errors of the Bush-Cheney regime, although you left out Bush's systematic demolition of our tri-partite constitutional government, wherein our Congress and Courts were denuded of oversight authority. The failure to investigate and prosecute the criminals involved in the Iran-Contra scandal left the main evil doers free to re-appear and carry on with their nefarious schemes as high officials in the Bush-Cheney administration. We must learn from that failure and thoroughly investigate and clean out the neo-fascists in the Bush-Cheney administration so they can never re-appear to damage the United States again. The U.S. has been totally shamed in the eyes of the world and in those of its citizens. To restore any semblance of honor, we must investigate and prosecute all the criminals in the Bush-Cheney administration, including Bush and Cheney.

The sad part about this
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 02:07 — Anonymous (not verified)
The sad part about this article is that even in this day and age; Mr Cohen still believes that if the war had been prosecuted better, it would have all been OK. Never mind that the rationale was flawed from the beginning. If you are going to invade and kill people, you should do it right!
Let me tell you from a non

Wed, 04/15/2009 - 01:40 — Dauphin Ermite (not verified)
Let me tell you from a non american perspective, Bush's presidency has not been the high point of USA's moral and political preeminence in the world. I am severely understating... And when one adds Cheney to the equation, the word "disgust" is a mild one. Many of my friends in the political and social spheres are asking why Bush and Cheney are not presently prosecuted for crimes of war and crimes of desecration of democracy and human rights. No we are not wobling at the knees, Chuck, just using a bit of our two neurones...
So when do we start
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 01:34 — Jonathan Mitchell (not verified)
So when do we start prosecuting these monsters to erase their dangerous precedent from the blackboard of U.S. history? (Roaring silence from the Obama administration...)
All was made possible by
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 01:00 — PortArnie (not verified)
All was made possible by 9/11 maybe that should be investigated now or is this institude formed to prevent that!
Bankruptcies 'R' US Bush,
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 00:40 — Anonymous (not verified)
Bankruptcies 'R' US Bush, the lying fool who led every company he was involved with into bankruptcy, bailed out in the past by his partners who financed Al-Queda, his criminal empire finally busted the entire economy with its trickle down corruption. Suck this worm into a jail cell and regain the respect of the thinking world.
This article has listed the
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 22:52 — Devon Noll, MPA (not verified)
This article has listed the faults of the Bush Administration, in part, but something else that was not addressed should give us all pause. Bush and his cadre of thieves, liars, and rogues who would have had a dictatorship in place if not for a failed emergency are once again meeting in private to plan - a policy institute! Let's get a clue here - these guys want to plan policy agendas for the likes of Cantor et al, and how to rebuild the Republican policies in a new government. They will be working long and hard to complete what they started in 2000 and they have the money, the media, and the people to succeed again. This group should be watched very carefully, see who they work with, and be very careful about dismissing them. This group is not done, and as I said when Miers, Rove, and Gonzalez left DC, they have fallen below media radar for a long time now, which means that many things are afoot that may not be quite so noticeable now because of Bush's economic debacle and the media's penchant for distraction. Be very, very careful!
NYCartist is right! There
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 22:33 — Anonymous (not verified)
NYCartist is right! There were no failures as far as any of the gang of escapees from hell is concerned - they stole 10 trillion dollars from the world and we are now witnessing the aggrandizement of it all - like a statue to Satan in Hell. Instead, can we quickly set up a new commando unit to quickly put bars on all the doors and windows of that monstrosity while they are all in there admiring their killing spree and then kinda loose the keys? Please... pretty please
The Bush administration was
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 22:19 — Anonymous (not verified)
The Bush administration was a success - in the same way Tony Soprano was a success when he took over his friend's sporting goods store and busted it out for the benefit of himself and his crew. We keep looking at the mess Bush left behind while we really need to look for all those who benefited from this enterprise, understand what they did, how they did it and set up safeguards to keep anyone from being able to do this again.
As long as not ONE tax
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 22:14 — Anonymous (not verified)
As long as not ONE tax dollar is spent on it, let them build their monument to corruption and stupidity. It will make good study for future generations. The Rove propaganda gallery should be especially interesting.
Let's NOT move on! Bush
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:50 — Robert B. (not verified)
Let's NOT move on! Bush should be handed over to the International Criminal Court ASAP.
The “Decider” and
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:15 — Anonymous (not verified)
The “Decider” and friends should use the meeting to systematize their management experiences and draw the lessons learned on the best and more cost effective management strategies to....shot up the unemployment, foreclosures and, bankruptcies rates; increase environmental vulnerabilities, reach higher poverty rates; “left behind” more children without health benefits, provide fatter paychecks for CEOs to reward incompetence, “improve” political corruption, claim secrecy privileges and more to hide from the people (who are supposed to be informed) enhance violation of human rights and international law, make “rapid lousy assessment” and response to Katrina, obtain high disapproval level, and more and more nationally and internationally. That's a heck of management! Worth a book for the Nobel Prize.
>Thankya f'r y'r support!
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:08 — Anonymous (not verified)
>Thankya f'r y'r support! My institute is gonna be diff'rent, it's gonna have a barbecue pit in the back, and a sub-basement where we're gonna prototype the tortures of a future policy. Some folks may be lookin' for that pointy headed progressive stuff, well that will not be part of the plan of my policy institute. It's gonna be on 40 acres, on a pastoral type setting with lots of meadows where Dick Cheney can blast away at skeet and various folks he don't like.
I wonder if Bush can yet
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:03 — Anonymous (not verified)
I wonder if Bush can yet name any of his mistakes!
Trashing Bush was great
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 20:58 — Anonymous (not verified)
Trashing Bush was great sport while he was in office. Now it's pointless. Lets move on, get the war crimes trial going, and put this where it belongs: in our history books under the chapter titled Mistakes We Should Avoid Repeating. In fact, lets make it a required course for all students. America Is Not Infallible 101.
This article is pussing
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 19:46 — Anonymous (not verified)
This article is pussing footing! not one word about how the war was an illegal invasion!!
Let's hope America remembers
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 18:37 — Anonymous (not verified)
Let's hope America remembers this the next time we get the urge to put a born-again former-alcoholic party-frat boy whose military and business accomplishments consist mainly of getting preferential treatment from daddy's friends in charge.
It is beyond the scope of
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 17:58 — Mg (not verified)
It is beyond the scope of George W. Bush to actually make sense of all that he has done, and probably will do. From our perspective on this side of his face, it doesn't look too good.
Bush expanded Pres. powers,
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 17:41 — NYCartist (not verified)
Bush expanded Pres. powers, gave cronies jobs, got funding for 2 wars, tax cuts for his friends...This is failure?
Or, America could have
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 17:23 — Anonymous (not verified)
Or, America could have listened to the millions of people here and abroad who knew that the invasion of Iraq was designed to steal their oil, and not done it at all.