Terrorism, War, and Bush 43: Crash Course US History #46

Summary

El script de este episodio de CrashCourse aborda la historia de los Estados Unidos en el siglo XXI, enfocándose en la presidencia de George W. Bush. Se discuten temas como la elección presidencial de 2000, la política exterior tras los ataques del 11 de septiembre, la invasión de Irak y las políticas internas, incluyendo el Acta de No Niño Olvidado y la Ley PATRIOT. Además, se mencionan los desafíos económicos y los desastres naturales como Huracán Katrina, que pusieron a prueba la gestión del gobierno y la confianza del público. El video ofrece una visión general de los eventos que moldearon la década inicial del siglo XXI en los Estados Unidos.

Takeaways

• 🗳️ La presidencia de George W. Bush es crucial para entender los Estados Unidos de hoy, a pesar de que no aparece en los exámenes del AP.
• 🏛️ La elección presidencial de 2000 fue extremadamente cercana y generó un gran debate, con Al Gore ganando el voto popular pero no las votos electorales necesarios.
• 📊 El Tribunal Supremo en Bush v. Gore decidió detener el recount en Florida, lo cual generó controversia y afectó el proceso electoral de la州.
• 🚀 Durante su mandato, Bush trabajó en un sistema de defensa de misiles similar al de 'Star Wars' y limitó el financiamiento federal para la investigación con células madre.
• 🌍 El 11 de septiembre de 2001 marcó un punto de inflexión en la política exterior de EE. UU., con el ataque al World Trade Center y al Pentágono.
• 🕋 La guerra en Afganistán comenzó en 2001 para desalojar a los talibanes y capturar a Osama bin Laden, líder de Al Qaeda.
• 🔫 La 'Doctrina Bush' estableció una política exterior agresiva contra el terrorismo, sin distinguir entre terroristas y naciones que los albergaban.
• 🇮🇶 La invasión a Irak en 2003 se basó en la afirmación de que Irak tenía armas de destrucción masiva y posibles vínculos con Al Qaeda, lo cual resultó en un desastre humano y económico.
• 📈 La economía de EE. UU. se deslizó hacia una recesión durante el mandato de Bush, con una disminución en la industria manufacturera y pérdida de empleos.
• 🌪️ Huracán Katrina en 2005 dejó al descubierto las deficiencias en la preparación y respuesta a desastres, impactando negativamente en la percepción del gobierno.
• 🏦 La recesión de 2007 y el colapso del sistema bancario de EE. UU. en 2008 fueron consecuencias económicas significativas del mandato de Bush.

Q & A

¿Qué evento significativo ocurrió durante la presidencia de George W. Bush que cambió la política exterior de Estados Unidos?

Los ataques del 11 de septiembre de 2001 marcaron el inicio de una política exterior basada en la lucha contra el terrorismo y por la libertad bajo la doctrina de Bush, lo que dominó las discusiones de la década inicial del siglo XXI.

¿Cuál fue el resultado del recuento de votos en la elección presidencial de 2000 en Florida?

El recuento de votos en Florida fue muy cercano, y aunque Al Gore ganó la votación popular, la intervención del Tribunal Supremo en el caso Bush v. Gore decidió detener el recuento, lo que llevó a la victoria de George W. Bush.

¿Qué ley de reforma educativa推行了 el presidente Bush y qué implicaciones tuvo para los maestros?

Bush impulsó la Ley de No Niño Olvidado (No Child Left Behind Act), que obligó a los estados a implementar estándares rigurosos y regímenes de pruebas para demostrar que dichos estándares se cumplían, lo que resultó en gran controversia entre los maestros.

¿Qué acción tomó la administración de Bush en relación con el Acuerdo de Kioto de 1997 sobre emisiones de carbono?

La administración de Bush anunció que Estados Unidos no se adheriría al Acuerdo de Kioto de 1997, lo que generó la desaprobación de los ambientalistas tanto en el país como en el extranjero.

¿Cómo describirías la postura de Bush con respecto a la investigación con células madre y la perforación de petróleo en la Refugio Nacional de la Fauna Salvaje del Ártico?

Durante los primeros 100 días de su presidencia, Bush prohibió el financiamiento federal para la investigación con células madre y apoyó la perforación de petróleo en el Refugio Nacional de la Fauna Salvaje del Ártico.

¿Qué evento histórico del 11 de septiembre de 2001 cambió la percepción de libertad en Estados Unidos?

Los ataques del 11 de septiembre subrayaron que uno de los aspectos centrales del gobierno para mantener nuestra libertad es mantenernos seguros, lo que a menudo implica limitar ciertas libertades civiles.

¿Cuál fue la reacción de los estadounidenses inmediatamente después de los ataques del 11 de septiembre de 2001?

Los estadounidenses se unieron por un sentido compartido de trauma y un deseo de mostrar resolución, lo que llevó a un aumento en la popularidad del presidente Bush.

¿Qué se conoce como la 'Doctrina de Bush' y qué principios guiaron esta política exterior?

La 'Doctrina de Bush' se basó en la guerra contra el terrorismo sin hacer distinción entre los terroristas y las naciones que los albergaban, con el principio de que 'o estás con nosotros o estás con los terroristas'.

¿Cómo describirías la situación en Irak después de la invasión de 2003 y cuáles fueron las consecuencias para los estadounidenses y los iraquíes?

Después de la caída de Bagdad, Irak se sumió en el caos sectario, con un aumento en la actividad insurgente y un número creciente de soldados estadounidenses y civiles iraquíes muertos o heridos, y un costo económico significativo para Estados Unidos.

¿Qué desencadenante llevó al país a caer en recesión nuevamente en 2007 y cuál fue el impacto en el sistema bancario de Estados Unidos?

Una masiva burbuja inmobiliaria que comenzó a deflactarse en 2007, seguida del casi colapso del sistema bancario estadounidense en 2008, desencadenaron una recesión que afectó gravemente a la economía y a la confianza del público.

¿Cómo afectó el huracán Katrina la percepción pública de la administración Bush y cuáles fueron las consecuencias políticas?

La respuesta lenta y deficiente a Katrina揭露了 la pobre preparación y respuesta a desastres en todos los niveles gubernamentales, lo que contribuyó a la pérdida de confianza en la administración Bush y a una victoria de los demócratas en las elecciones中期选举 de 2006.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introducción a la historia del siglo XXI

John Green, presentador de CrashCourse U.S. history, celebra haber llegado al siglo XXI, un territorio no cubierto por la mayoría de los cursos de historia debido a que suelen quedarse en el pasado. Aunque la clase de historia no cubrirá celebridades contemporáneas como Lady Gaga o Kim Kardashian, Green enfatiza la importancia de entender el presente a través del conocimiento histórico. Comienza hablando de la presidencia de George W. Bush, destacando su elección en 2000, marcada por un proceso electoral muy cercano y controvertido, especialmente en Florida, donde la influencia del hermano de Bush, Jeb Bush, fue significativa. La decisión del Tribunal Supremo en el caso Bush v. Gore fue crucial y generó discusiones sobre la intervención en un proceso electoral estatal.

05:03

😞 El 11 de septiembre y la política exterior de Bush

El script narra los eventos del 11 de septiembre de 2001, descritos por Raoul Meyer, historiador y exprofesor de Green. Los ataques terroristas del 9/11 tuvieron un impacto devastador en la vida estadounidense y convirtieron la política exterior en la prioridad del primer lustro del siglo XXI. Bush experimentó un aumento en su popularidad tras los ataques y anunció el 'Bush Doctrine', que prometía luchar contra el terrorismo sin distinguir entre los terroristas y los países que los albergaban. Se inició una ofensiva militar en Afganistán para derrocar al Taliban y establecer un gobierno afín a los EE.UU., lo que llevó a un breve período de mejoras en los derechos de las mujeres. También se menciona la expansión del 'Eje del Mal' para incluir a Irán, Irak y Corea del Norte, y la invasión de Irak en 2003, justificada por la supuesta posesión de armas de destrucción masiva por parte de Saddam Hussein y un presunto vínculo con Al Qaeda, que resultó ser falso.

10:07

😠 Política interna y respuesta a la crisis del 11 de septiembre

El script describe las medidas tomadas por el gobierno de Bush en respuesta a los ataques del 11 de septiembre, incluyendo la aprobación de la USA PATRIOT Act, que amplió significativamente los poderes de vigilancia y interceptación de comunicaciones del gobierno. Se detalla cómo se llevaron a cabo arrestos y detenciones de personas sospechosas de tener conexiones con el Medio Oriente, y cómo el gobierno estableció un campo de prisioneros en Guantánamo Bay. También se menciona la autorización de la NSA para realizar escuchas telefónicas sin orden judicial previa, y cómo la tortura y las técnicas de interrogatorio 'avanzadas' fueron utilizadas y debatidas. La reelección de Bush en 2004 se discute en el contexto de una economía que no estaba creciendo y una serie de eventos que socavaron la confianza pública en su administración, como la huracán Katrina y la respuesta inadecuada del gobierno a la misma.

15:09

😔 Conclusión y agradecimientos

Green concluye el video resaltando la importancia de los ataques del 11 de septiembre en la política exterior de los Estados Unidos y su impacto en el mundo, así como el inicio de una lucha global contra el terrorismo y por la libertad. Sin embargo, señala que este esfuerzo por garantizar una cierta libertad ha resultado en la merma de otras libertades civiles. El script termina agradeciendo el apoyo de los espectadores y promocionando Subbable.com, un servicio de suscripción voluntaria que ayuda a financiar Crash Course.

Keywords

💡CrashCourse

CrashCourse es una serie de videos educativos gratuitos que cubren una amplia gama de temas, desde historia hasta ciencias, presentados de una manera accesible y entretenida. En el video, CrashCourse es el medio a través del cual se narra la historia de Estados Unidos hasta llegar al siglo XXI, y es el contexto en el que se desarrollan los temas y conceptos clave que se discuten.

💡George W. Bush

George W. Bush fue el presidente de los Estados Unidos entre 2001 y 2009. En el video, su presidencia es crucial para entender los eventos y las políticas que han moldeado los Estados Unidos de hoy, incluyendo la elección del 2000, la respuesta a los ataques del 11 de septiembre y la invasión de Irak, que son temas centrales en el script.

💡Elección del 2000

La 'Elección del 2000' fue un evento significativo en la historia política de Estados Unidos, donde se enfrentó a George W. Bush y Al Gore. El resultado estuvo muy cercano y generó un gran debate sobre el proceso electoral y el recuento de votos, especialmente en la estado de Florida, que se menciona en el video como un punto de controversia.

💡Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda es una organización terrorista internacional que se hizo infame por su papel en los ataques del 11 de septiembre de 2001. En el video, se describe cómo estos ataques cambiaron la política exterior de Estados Unidos y condujeron a la guerra contra el terrorismo, con Al Qaeda siendo uno de los actores principales en el conflicto.

💡Bush Doctrine

La 'Bush Doctrine' se refiere a la política exterior de Estados Unidos establecida por el presidente George W. Bush después de los ataques del 11 de septiembre. En el video, se menciona cómo esta doctrina implicaba una guerra contra el terrorismo y la no distinción entre los terroristas y las naciones que los albergaban, lo que marcó un cambio significativo en la política exterior de Estados Unidos.

💡Afganistán

Afganistán es el escenario de una de las primeras operaciones militares de los Estados Unidos después de los ataques del 11 de septiembre. En el video, se discute cómo los Estados Unidos lanzaron ataques aéreos y enviaron tropas terrestres a Afganistán para derrocar al Taliban, un grupo de fundamentalistas islámicos que albergaba a Osama bin Laden, líder de Al Qaeda.

💡Invasión de Irak

La 'Invasión de Irak' ocurrió en 2003 cuando Estados Unidos, junto con Gran Bretaña y una coalición de otros países, invadió Irak con el objetivo de derrocar al dictador Saddam Hussein. El video menciona que la invasión se justificó bajo la creencia de que Irak poseía armas de destrucción masiva y posibles vínculos con Al Qaeda, aunque más tarde se descubrió que estas afirmaciones no eran precisas.

💡USA PATRIOT Act

El 'USA PATRIOT Act' es una ley aprobada por el Congreso de Estados Unidos después de los ataques del 11 de septiembre, que amplia las capacidades de vigilancia y recolección de información del gobierno para combatir el terrorismo. En el video, se discute cómo esta ley otorgó poderes sin precedentes a las agencias de aplicación de la ley y generó preocupaciones sobre la privacidad y las libertades civiles.

💡Huracán Katrina

El 'Huracán Katrina' fue una catástrofe natural que azotó la costa del Golfo de México en 2005, causando una gran destrucción en la ciudad de Nueva Orleans. En el video, se menciona cómo la respuesta lenta y deficiente del gobierno a la catástrofe揭示了 las fallas en la preparación y el manejo de emergencias, y cómo este evento afectó negativamente la percepción pública del gobierno de Bush.

💡Recesión de 2008

La 'Recesión de 2008' fue una crisis económica global causada en parte por la deflación de un enorme burbuja inmobiliaria en Estados Unidos y el colapso del sistema bancario. En el video, se señala cómo esta recesión tuvo un impacto significativo en la economía de Estados Unidos y el mundo, y se sugiere que será un tema de estudio en futuras lecciones de CrashCourse.

Highlights

Reaching the 21st century in U.S. history education, a topic often not covered in traditional curriculum.

The 2000 U.S. Presidential Election controversy and its implications on the Red-Blue political divide.

George W. Bush's campaign as a 'Compassionate Conservative' and the formation of a successful political coalition.

Bush's initial policy decisions, including a missile defense system and opposition to the Kyoto Protocol.

The No Child Left Behind Act and its controversial impact on education in the U.S.

The largest tax cut in American history under Bush's administration to stimulate economic growth.

Personal account of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from historian Raoul Meyer.

The Bush Doctrine's impact on foreign policy and the global war on terror post-9/11.

The invasion of Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban, and the establishment of a new Afghan government.

The 'axis of evil' concept introduced by Bush, implicating Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq, the search for weapons of mass destruction, and the subsequent chaos.

The USA PATRIOT Act and its effects on civil liberties and government surveillance powers.

The use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' and the debate over their legality and morality.

George W. Bush's re-election in 2004 and the factors contributing to his victory.

The impact of Hurricane Katrina on public perception of the Bush administration and its handling of disasters.

The 2008 financial crisis and its roots in the housing market and banking system.

Transcripts

Hi, I’m John Green, this is CrashCourse U.S. history and today we’ve done it!

WE’VE FINALLY REACHED THE 21st CENTURY!

Today, we boldly go where no history course has gone before, because your teacher ran

out of time and never made it to the present.

Also, if you’re preparing for the AP test it’s unlikely that today’s video will

be helpful to you because, you know, they never get to this stuff.

Mr. Green, Mr. Green?

Awesome, free period.

Yeah, Me From the Past, there’s no such thing as a free period.

There’s only time, and how you choose to use it.

Also, Me From the Past, we’re in your future, hold on I’ve got to take this stuff off

it’s hard to take me seriously with that.

We’re in the future for you which means that you are learning important things about

the you who does not yet exist.

You know about Lady GaGa, Kanye and Kim, Bieber, well you’re not going to find out about

any of those things because this is a history class, but it’s still going to be interesting.

INTRO So the presidency of George W. Bush may not

end up on your AP exam, but it’s very important when it comes to understanding the United

States that we live in today The controversy starts with the 2000 Election.

Democratic presidential candidate Al “I invented the Internet” Gore was sitting

Vice President, and he asked Bill Clinton not to campaign much because a lot of voters

kind of hated Bill Clinton.

The republican candidate was George W. Bush, governor of Texas and unlike his father a

reasonably authentic Texan.

You know, as people from Connecticut go.

Bush was a former oil guy and baseball team owner and he was running as a Compassionate

Conservative, which meant he was organizing a coalition of religious people and fiscal

conservatives.

And that turned out to be a very effective coalition and George W Bush got a lot of votes.

He did not however get as many votes as Al Gore.

But as you’ll no doubt remember from earlier in Crash Course US History, in the United

States presidential elections are not decided by popular vote.

They are decided by the Electoral College.

So the election was incredibly close.

It solidified the Red-Blue divide that has become a trope for politicians since.

And in the end Gore won the popular vote by about 500,000 votes.

However, Al Gore did not have the necessary electoral votes to become president.

Unless he won Florida.

Did he win Florida?

I don’t even want to go there…

In Florida the vote was ridiculously close, but George W Bush had a gigantic advantage

which is that his brother, Jeb Bush, was the governor of Florida.

So when it came time to certify the election Jeb was like, “Yeah.

My brother won.

No big deal.”

But then the Gore campaign sued to have a recount by hand which is allowed under Florida

law.

But then Bush’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to intervene and they did.

Their decision in Bush v. Gore remains rather controversial.

They ruled that the recount should be stopped, interfering with a state law and also a state’s

electoral process, which is a weird decision for strict constructionists to make.

However, one of the strong points of the United States these past couple centuries has been

that sometimes we have the opportunity to go to war over whether this person or that

person should be president and we chose not to.

So regardless of whether you think the recount should have gone on, or George W Bush should

have been elected, he was, and he set to work implementing his campaign promises, including

working on a missile defence system that was very similar to Star Wars.

And that was Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars, not George Lucas’ Star Wars.

Man if we could get a federally funded new Star Wars trilogy that doesn’t suck that

would be awesome.

Anyway, in the first 100 days of his presidency Bush also barred federal funding for stem

cell research, and he supported oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

And speaking of environmental policy, the Bush administration announced that it would

not abide by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on carbon emissions and that didn’t go over well with

environmentalists in the U.S. or in all of these green parts of not-America because they

were like, “You guys made all the carbon.”

To which we said, “This is America.”

Libertage Bush also attempted education reform with

the No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated that states implement “rigorous” standards

and testing regimes to prove that those standards were being met.

The No Child Left Behind Act is especially controversial with teachers who are great

friends of Crash Course US History so we will say nothing more.

Most importantly, George W Bush pushed through the largest tax cut in American history in

2001.

Claiming that putting more money in Americans’ pockets would stimulate growth in an economy

that had stumbled after the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000.

Oh, it’s time for the Mystery Document?

The rules here are simple.

I guess the author of the Mystery Document, I either get it right, or I get shocked with

the shock pen.

Alright, what have we got here today.

I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a sad one.

“It was a beautiful fall day, with a crisp, blue sky.

I was coming in to work late that day; I guess I didn’t have first period class.

It was only the second or third day of school.

When I emerged from the subway, Union Square was strangely quiet, which only added to the

beauty of the day.

People were standing still, which is weird in New York under any circumstances, and looking

down University Place towards lower Manhattan.

Before I even looked I asked a passerby what had happened.

She, or he, I really don’t remember, said that a plane had crashed into the Trade Center.

Then I looked and saw the smoke coming billo wing out of the South Tower.

I thought it was an accident, but I knew that this was not going to be an easy day.

Well it’s obviously someone who was in New York City on September 11, 2001, but that

only narrows it down to like 10 million people.

However, I happen to know that it is Crash Course historian and my high school history

teacher Raoul Meyer who wrote that account.

This is the saddest I have ever been not to be shocked.

So whether George Bush’s domestic policy would have worked is up for debate, but the

events of September 11, 2001 ensured that foreign policy would dominate any discussion

of the opening decade of the 21st century.

That morning terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda hijacked 4 airliners.

Two planes were flown into Manhattan’s World Trade Center, a third was crashed into the

Pentagon in Washington and a fourth, also headed for Washington DC crashed in Pennsylvania

when passengers overpowered the hijackers.

Almost 3,000 people died including almost 400 policemen and firefighters.

As Americans rushed to help in the search for survivors and to rebuild a devastated

city, a shared sense of trauma and a desire to show resolve really did bring the country

together.

President Bush’s popularity soared in the wake of the attacks.

In a speech on September 20, the president told Americans watching on television that

the terrorists had targeted America “Because we love freedom […]. And they hate freedom.”

This is another critical moment in American history where the definition of freedom is

being reimagined.

And we were reminded in the wake of September 11th that one of the central things that government

does to keep us free is to keep us safe.

But at the same time ensuring our safety sometimes means impinging upon our freedoms.

And the question of how to keep America safe while also preserving our civil liberties

is one of the central questions of the 21st century.

At any rate, in the September 20th speech, the president announced a new guiding principle

in foreign policy that became known as the Bush Doctrine.

America would go to war with terrorism making no distinction between the terrorists and

nations that harbored them.

Bush laid out the terms for the world that night: “Either you are with us or you are

with the terrorists.”

But that dichotomy of course would prove to be a bit of an oversimplification.

So on October 7, the United States launched its first airstrikes on Afghanistan, which

at the time was ruled by a group of Islamic fundamentalists called the Taliban who were

protecting Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda’s leader.

This was followed by American ground troops supporting the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance

in chasing out the Taliban and setting up a new Afghan government that was friendly

to the United States.

This new government did undo many of the worst Taliban policies, for instance allowing women

and girls to go to school, and even to serve in the parliament.

More women than girls in the parliament naturally.

But by 2007 the Taliban was beginning to make a comeback and although fewer than 100 Americans

died in the initial phase of the war, a sizeable force remained and in the ensuing 12 years

the number of Americans killed would continue to rise.

And then, by January 2002, Bush had expanded the scope of the Global War on Terror by proclaiming

that Iran, Iraq and North Korea were an “axis of evil” that harbored terrorists, even

though none of those nations had direct ties to the September 11 attacks.

The ultimate goal of Bush Doctrine was to make the world safe for freedom and also to

spread it and freedom was defined as consisting of political democracy, free expression, religious

toleration, free trade and free markets.

These freedoms, Bush said, were, “right and true for every person, in every society”.

And there’s no question that the Saddam Hussein led Iraq of 2003 was not, by any of

those definitions, free.

But the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States was predicated on two ideas.

First, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction - chemical and biological weapons that they

were refusing to give up.

And second, that there was, or at least may have been, a link between Saddam Hussein's

Iraq and the Al Qaeda attacks of 9-11.

So in March 2003 the United States, Britain, and a coalition of other countries, invaded

Iraq.

Within a month Baghdad was captured, Saddam Hussein was ousted, Iraq created a new government

that was more democratic than Saddam’s dictatorship, and then descended into sectarian chaos.

After Baghdad fell, President Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq,

but troops soon found themselves trying to manage an increasingly organized insurgency

that featured attacks and bombings.

And by 2006 American intelligence analysts concluded that Iraq had become a haven for

Islamist terrorists, which it hadn’t been, before the invasion.

In fact, Saddam Hussein’s socialist government, while it occasionally called upon religion

to unify people against an enemy, was pretty secular.

Although fewer than 200 Americans had died in the initial assaults, by the end of 2006,

more than 3,000 American soldiers had been killed and another 20,000 wounded.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had died in the conflict and the costs of the war which

were promised to be no more than $60 billion had ballooned to $200 billion dollars.

So that, and we try really hard here at Crash Course to be objective was a bit of a disaster.

But let’s now go back to the domestic side of things and jump back in time to the passage

of the USA PATRIOT act.

Which believe it or not is an acronym for the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing

Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism act of 2001.

Oh, Congress you don’t pass many laws these days but when you do… mmhm….

there’s some winners.

The PATRIOT act gave the government unprecedented law enforcement powers to combat domestic

terrorism including the ability to wiretap and spy on Americans.

At least 5000 people connected to the Middle East were called in for questioning and more

than 1200 were arrested, many held for months without any charge.

The administration also set up a camp for accused terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba,

but not the fun kind of camp, the prison kind, it housed more than 700 suspects.

The president also authorized the National Security Agency to listen in to telephone

conversations without first obtaining a warrant, the so-called warrantless wiretapping.

In 2013 Americans learned that NSA surveillance has of course gone much farther than this

with surveillance programs like PRISM which sounds like it’s out of an Orwell novel

- I mean both like the name and the actual thing it refers to.

Meredith would like us to point out that Prism is also the name of a Katy Perry album proving

that we here at Crash Course are young and hip and with it.

Who is Katy Perry?

Oh right, she has that song in Madagascar 3.

Sorry, I have little kids.

The Supreme Court eventually limited the executive branch’s power and ruled that enemy combatants

do have some procedural rights.

Congress also banned the use of torture in a 2005 defense appropriations bill sponsored

by Republican John McCain who himself had been a victim of torture in Vietnam.

But the Defense Department did condone the continued use of so-called “enhanced interrogation

techniques” like waterboarding.

Which most countries do consider torture.

But George W Bush won re-election in 2004, defeating the surprisingly weak John Kerry,

who was characterized as a “waffler” on a number of issues including the Iraq war.

Kerry’s history as a Vietnam protester and also terrible windsurfer probably didn’t

help him much.

Bush’s victory is still a bit surprising to historians admittedly at that moment the

Iraq war seemed to be going pretty well.

But during Bush’s first term, the economy, which is usually what really drives voters,

wasn’t that great at all.

A recession began during 2001 and the September 11 attacks made it much worse.

And while the GDP did begin to grow again relatively quickly, employment didn’t recover,

hence all the description of it as a “jobless recovery.”

90% of the jobs lost in the 2001-2002 recession were in manufacturing, continuing a trend

that we had been seeing for 30 years.

The number of steelworkers dropped from 520,000 in 1970 to 120,000 in 2004.

And in his first term George W Bush actually became the first president since Herbert Hoover

to oversee a net loss of jobs.

Now I want to be clear that that’s not necessarily his fault as I have said many times before

- economics are complicated.

And presidents do not decide whether economies grow.

But at any rate George W Bush was re-elected and went on to have an extremely controversial

second term.

Let’s go to the thoughtbubble.

In 2005 several events undermined the public’s confidence in the Bush administration.

First, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff was indicted for perjury and then

House Majority Leader Tom “The Hammer” DeLay was indicted for violating campaign

finance laws.

Then in August 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf coast near New Orleans submerging

much of the city, killing nearly 1500 people, and leaving thousands stranded without basic

services.

Disaster preparation and response was poor on the state, local, and federal levels, but

the slow response of the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management

Agency was particularly noticeable as thousands of mostly African American New Orleans residents

suffered without food or water.

Damage to the city was estimated at around $80 billion dollars.

And the Katrina disaster exposed the persistent poverty and racial divisions in the city.

While the Katrina response probably contributed to the reversal of fortune for Congressional

Republicans in the 2006 mid-terms, it was more likely the spike in gasoline prices that

resulted from the shutting down of refining capacity in the gulf and increased demand

for oil from rapidly growing China.

Voters gave Democrats majorities in both houses, and Nancy Pelosi of California became the

first woman Speaker of the House in American history.

And then, in 2007, the country fell back into recession as a massive housing bubble began

to deflate, followed by the near collapse of the American banking system in 2008.

Thought Bubble, thank you once again for the tremendous downer.

So, the Bush years are still in the recent past, and it’s impossible to tell just what

their historical significance is without some distance.

But the attacks on September 11 had far ranging effects on American foreign policy but also

on the entire world.

Under the leadership of George W Bush the United States began a global fight against

terrorism and for freedom.

But as always, what we mean by the words is evolving and there’s no question that in

trying to ensure a certain kind of freedom we have undermined other kinds of freedom.

We’ll get to the even messier and murkier world of the 2008 financial collapse next

week.

Until then, thanks for watching.

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