I know it is an article of faith that the Bush presidency has been a global fiasco that has turned the world against us, but like much of what the reality-based community believes about foreign policy and military affairs, it is a fantasy world they inhabit on this question.
Let's look at accomplishments of the George W. Bush era that have made us safer, in no particular order:
He has protected our homeland since 9/11. Few would have predicted this on the morning of 9/12/01.
No Arab states have fallen to a "street"-driven Islamist uprising.
An Indian-American alliance is blossoming.
Economic aid based on reforms will build up Africa to reduce the threat of collapsed states.
Massive help on HIV/AIDS is making a real difference in Africa.
AFRICOM will allow us to build on strengthening African states and improving their governance and economies, blunting Chinese ambitions in the process.
South Korea has gone from being a consumer of security to helping us, sending forces to Iraq for much of the war and allowing us to remove forces from the DMZ facing North Korea.
Japan has strengthened its defense ties with America, helping in both the Pacific as well as in Iraq, the Afghan campaign, and Cambodia, with military forces.
Arab states have rallied agsinst the Iranian threat, including the Hamas and Hezbollah threats bolstered by Iran, notwithstanding our failure to solve the Palestinian question first.
Al Qaeda and terror tactics have been largely discredited in the Moslem world as the face of terror has been exposed to the Moslem world.
He flipped Libya, ending its drive for WMD and support for terror.
He flipped Pakistan, turning it from a proliferator of nuclear technology and Islamist ideology to at least a very imperfect ally in the war against Islam0fascist terror.
He defeated Saddam's Baathist regime, ending that ongoing human rights violation and stopping its drive for WMD.
He defeated the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, ending its human rights violations and ending its role as a sanctuary for al Qaeda.
He has stood with Iraqis in the face of Syrian and Iranian efforts to incite civil war through their al Qaeda and Sadrist allies and helped start Iraq on the path to rule of law and democracy.
He has helped Afghanistan begin to build a more responsive state that can improve the lives of ordinary Afghans.
He has restored Jordan as a more reliable American ally after Jordan was an ally of Saddam during the 1990s.
He prodded Saudi Arabia to fight jihadis within the kingdom rather than turn a blind eye to their recruiting efforts.
He expanded NATO east into former Soviet-controlled territory, reducing the vacuum between the West and Russia that could spark conflict, and expanding the West.
He has pushed national missile defense and theater missile defense programs to the point where we now have defensive options against a nuclear attack. This could also give us a shield behind which we can strike Iran's nuclear infrastructure when Iran openly goes nuclear.
We have stronger defense cooperation with Australia.
We've largely defeated the communist and drug-dealing insurgents and criminals in Colombia.
We succeeded in ejecting Syrian military units from Lebanon.
We have closer ties with Brazil.
We have provided significant aid to Mexico which may prove to the crucial factor in preventing our neighbor from dissolving into drug gang-chaos if the government there should falter in its efforts to fight the cartels.
We have worked with scores of countries in an effort to shut down the trade in WMD components or material.
We have increased intelligence cooperation with nations around the world to fight Islamist terrorists.
We have wound down our involvement in the Balkans without destabilizing the region.
We helped the Philippines break al Qaeda terror groups in that country.
We have contained and weakened North Korea.
We've agreed with Russia to reduce our nuclear arsenals.
We've modernized our ground forces while fighting two ground wars and a global war on terror without breaking our military.
We've waged a covert and financial struggle to impede Iran's nuclear ambitions.
And of course, the global temperature has not increased one bit under George W. Bush despite the frantic so-called consensus of this "planet-destroying" president.
Really, this is a pretty good record for a "failed" president. I hope President Obama does as much good for us.
UPDATE: And Bush's accomplishments were done with quite an anchor pulling him down. At its root, our Left and the media never forgave Bush for fighting--and then winning--in Iraq when they concluded we had to lose. May our new president not face such an obstacle to fighting the Long War.
