From Iraq To Russia And Panama, Even The U.S., Not Everyone Praised George H.W. Bush

History never repeats itself in the United States, but the imperial presidency does. As a result, not everyone praised President George H.W. Bush in his recent death. Nor did they consider him a “Great Man” or “Gentle Soul” as House Speaker Paul Ryan did. From Iraq to Russia and Panama, even the United States, some remembered him as “Mr. Embargo,” “The Butcher of Washington,” “A Yankee Bastard,” and a leader who sent their sons and daughters abroad to die in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. There’s also those in Russia who allege he turned his back when the Soviet Union collapsed and allowed Wall Street to fleece it. At any rate, he too embraced American imperialism, the right to seize the land or at least to control the government and resources of another people.

But first, it’s hard to deny that he lived a notable life. Along with serving as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993, he was Vice President to Ronald Reagan for eight years. As a member of the Republican Party, he had previously been a U.S. Representative, Ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence. There’s also his military service. Postponing his university studies after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the United States Navy where he became the youngest aviator in the U.S. Navy at the time. Later, his plane was shot down during World War II in the Pacific Theater of War where he narrowly escaped being captured by the Japanese. He also fathered several children with Barbara Bush, his wife. Two who later became a governor and president.

“Mr. Embargo” And “Washington Butcher”
Despite this and the fanfare that greeted him in the Capitol, not everyone considered him a “war hero.” Some Iraqis remembered him as “Mr. Embargo”-the man behind crushing economic sanctions they blame for ravaging their country. His death stirred up many bitter memories of over six hundred thousand Iraqi children which died from malnutrition. Five million more children under five wasted away with severe hunger, “similar to a concentration camp.” Nor can they forget the international community’s silence that “resulted in genocide,” or how U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright said later the price was worth it.(1) He’s also the “Washington Butcher,” having massacred fleeing soldiers and civilians who were promised safe passage on the road to Umir Quaar. (2)

There’s those who are still haunted from the bombing of a civilian shelter as well, where the stench of the sizzling corpses, nearly all women, children, and babies burned beyond identification, are etched in their hearts forever. Dismissing the footage of children’s charred remains as a cynical public relations ploy by the diabolical Butcher of Baghdad, they have no words to describe who some say is “a righteous Gentile who saved thousands. This includes Operation Desert Storm’s legacy. To be sure, it’s still poisoning the children of Iraq today, including those who’ve come of age and are stricken with cancer, tumors, and chronic diseases. It moreover represented the first time the U.S. sought to shape, control, and configure the destiny of the region from the air-and still is.

“Yankee Bastard” And “Commander Of Gulf War Syndrome”
Neither does everyone “just loved him,” as former President Bill Clinton wrote in a letter to his family. Having been directly involved with the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, later to return and help rebuild the damage that our imperial army did, I contacted a mother whose innocent son was killed by U.S. forces during the invasion. Not only did she say that she still grieves every day for her child, hoping that someday he might walk through the door, but she thinks of the late George Bush as a “Yankee Bastard.” Someone else who lost his uncle said “To Hell with Bush!” There are many other grieving parents and children who feel the same way. Indeed, over 5,000 innocent civilians were slaughtered in Operation Just Cause-a cause to them that was all but just and even senseless.

I also talked to the widow of a soldier who was activated for Operation Desert Storm. He died two years later from “Gulf War Syndrome,” which led to brain and central nervous system damage, rectal bleeding, fevers, miscarriages, birth defects, and respiratory failure. Caused either by oil well fires, depleted uranium, or drugs administered to counteract chemical and biological weapons, there were some 250,000 veterans that suffered or died. We both discussed his slow and painful death and her long battle with the government to have her husband’s illness diagnosed. To this day, she still blames George Bush Sr. for sending her husband to die in the deserts of the Middle East. She also thinks he could have done more to help her husband and others with the illness.

Another “Dictator” And “Vulture Capitalist”
A close missionary friend remembers him as another U.S. dictator who continued to support another friendly dictator in El Salvador. Consequently, he didn’t condemn the slaying of the six Jesuit priests in El Salvador, instead speeding up delivery of military aid to the brutal regime. This included more U.S. military personnel to train right-wing death squads in their fight against the poor and oppressed. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers and student hunger strikers packed Tiananmen Square demanding democracy and an open society. To the student’s dismay, or those who fled rows of mangled bodies and pools of blood, their pleas to President H.W. Bush fell on deaf ears. In the U.S., Chinese trade returned to normal-as did hunger, homelessness, and AIDS.

As for others, such as those in Russia, George H. W. Bush’s death brings up bitter memories over his involvement of the collapse of the Soviet Union and then its fleecing. This included using the same influences to keep Russia weak in his years in office. They believe he helped engineer the breakup of the Soviet Union and then encouraged Wall Street to plunder the fallen empire’s spoils. Years of subsidized loans, rescheduled debt, and the privatization drive simply created another system of tycoon capitalism run for the benefit of a corrupt political oligarchy. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of dollars of Russia’s wealth made its way back to Wall Street. With millions of Russians still suffering economically, no wonder they refer to him as a “vulture capitalist.”

Moral Courage And Imperial Presidency
They say that history is usually too kind to those who just die. Perhaps this is why the imperial presidency, and man, repeat themselves. A few do still remember, though, that as a representative of Congress, George H.W. Bush denounced the Civil Rights Act as “politically inspired and destined to failure.” Others recall how he supported Barry Goldwater’s racially charged election campaign in 1964 that resisted school integration and the use of federal troops to enforce it. The same goes for opposing Medicare and the nuclear test ban treaty. And there are those who can’t forget how he used the Willie Horton campaign ads to inflame anti-black hatred which helped him gain office, and defended Richard M. Nixon as a “beacon of truth” to the bitter end. (3)

Sickened over the Vietnam War and transformed by witnessing racial poverty, Robert F. Kennedy finally realized that: “Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of the their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society.” It included moral courage which, he believed, was a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. And yet, it was the one essential and vital quality for those who want to change the world but yields most painfully to change. Sadly, he never got a chance to prove it. But George H.W. Bush did. Consequently, and from Iraq to Russia and Panama and El Salvador, and even the U.S., he allowed the Imperial Presidency to be his defining moment. A moment that robbed millions of their lives.

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.

(1) Smith, Michael K. Portraits Of Empire: Unmasking Imperial Illusions from the “American Century” to the “War on Terror’”. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2003., p. 310.
(2) www.yahoo.com “Bitter Iraqis Remember George H.W. Bush As ‘Mr. Embargo,’” by Al Choukier. December 1, 2018.
(3) Smith, Michael K. Portraits Of Empire: Unmasking Imperial Illusions from the “American Century” to the “War on Terror’”., p. 266.