Letter: Arrogant policies, dreadful results

Wednesday, June 1, 2005 | 8:58 a.m.

President Bush continues to proclaim that the war in Iraq is a success. Yet the costs continue to mount, not just in taxpayer dollars, but in a continued daily loss of lives. Iraq grows ever closer to open civil war as its infra-structure continues to deteriorate and secular issues grip the nation.

This president has changed the image of the United States from a most-admired nation to a most-detested nation. One only has to look at the protests during Laura Bush's trip to the Middle East and those during the president's recent visit to Europe to realize how much our nation is now detested by much of the rest of the world.

Having said that, what has the president accomplished on the domestic front? The negatives can be found in our rapidly growing national debt and negative balance of trade. We are a nation divided by bitter partisanship at all levels, a nation that has been captured by big business and outspoken religious zealots. Our economic system has fostered the rich at the expense of the less fortunate. Bush calls his approach an "ownership society." Tell that to those who struggle to pay their rent and feed their families.

Only time will tell how history will judge President Bush. But from my perspective, at this point, I would guess history will judge him harshly, as being self-consumed and arrogant, a president who changed the course of history for the worse.

RAY HARBERT