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"People from that admin should be shunned from any published analysis" Interestingly, it was GWB that also put a lot of effort into pandemic preparedness. See:

"People from that admin should be shunned from any published analysis" Interestingly, it was GWB that also put a lot of effort into pandemic preparedness. See: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/homeland/pandemic-influenza.html https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/homeland/pandemi... History is kind of a weird place.

dantheman 6y ago
GWB is war monger and torturer. Sure he may have done some things that are good, but he made many horrible decisions.
- divbzero 6y ago
  Among the good things, George W. Bush contributed more to the fight against HIV/AIDS than any other president. [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Emergency_Plan_for_AIDS_Relief https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Emergency_Plan_f...
  - boomboomsubban 6y ago
    I can't find the full funding breakdown, but I'd guess Obama contributed more. Purely as he had 8 years to Bush's 5 though.
    - itsspring 6y ago
      > to Bush’s 5 How did Bush get a fifth year from a four year presidency?
      - jeffdavis 6y ago
        GWB was elected twice (Nov 2000 and Nov 2004) and served in office for two terms from January 2001 to January 2009. Why is this complicated and where did the number 5 even come from?
        boomboomsubban 6y ago
        The program started in 2003.
        jeffdavis 6y ago
        Oh, now I see what you mean. I think this is splitting hairs over who gets credit. Remember that Congress needed to raise the money and the taxpayers needed to pay it. From a practical standpoint, usually some credit is given for leadship to the one who gets a program off the ground. It seems fair in this case that GWB gets credit for that. You can also look at later people over a longer span of time and give them credit/blame for maintaining and administering it, as well (or letting it stagnate, like his pandemic plan, unfortunately). The main point here is that the GWB presidency was not black and white. I think he was a good person and made many good decisions and one really bad one. Quite possibly, with a different VP, he would be a lauded and dignified president, and a lot of things would be different. Or, if his pandemic plan had been maintained, and bore fruit today (that is showed benefits in fighting coronavirus), it may have redeemed his presidency entirely.
        boomboomsubban 6y ago
        I try not to remember war criminals for all the good things they did.
    - majewsky 6y ago
      George W. Bush held office for 8 years. You may be thinking of his father, George H. W. Bush.
      - boomboomsubban 6y ago
        Bush started that program in 2003.
- JackFr 6y ago
  I’m not sure anything I can say will convince you that he had any but evil intentions. But consider at the time, the United States had just suffered an unprecedented terrorist attack, the conventional wisdom (and much intelligence) was that Iraq held chemical weapons and finally the United States was engaging the Iraqi military on a regular basis as the sole enforcer of the UN sanctioned no fly zone. I won’t argue that the Iraq War wasn’t a mistake. It was, but it was made in good faith and largely, I think, out of fear.
  - Daishiman 6y ago
    I remember quite well when the US administration was displaying a parade of outright lies for months and months whose only purpose was to justify a war. He was a warmonger. His aides and his vice president stood to make tons of money out of that war.
nl 6y ago
Any normal mildly competent government does the same.
Iv 6y ago
Pandemic preparedness is one of the simplest thing in the world: have trained personnel, listen to a few epidemiologist expert when it comes to quarantine, make sure a few of the incredibly cheap and easy to manufacture protective equipments are available. The GWB admin still had the level of competence to organize something like the last Iraq war so it made sense it could have pandemic preparedness which is orders of magnitudes easier. I don't think the US public really realize how incompetent and dumb the current administration looks from abroad.

dantheman 6y ago

GWB is war monger and torturer. Sure he may have done some things that are good, but he made many horrible decisions.

divbzero 6y ago
Among the good things, George W. Bush contributed more to the fight against HIV/AIDS than any other president. [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Emergency_Plan_for_AIDS_Relief https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Emergency_Plan_f...
- boomboomsubban 6y ago
  I can't find the full funding breakdown, but I'd guess Obama contributed more. Purely as he had 8 years to Bush's 5 though.
  - itsspring 6y ago
    > to Bush’s 5 How did Bush get a fifth year from a four year presidency?
    - jeffdavis 6y ago
      GWB was elected twice (Nov 2000 and Nov 2004) and served in office for two terms from January 2001 to January 2009. Why is this complicated and where did the number 5 even come from?
      - boomboomsubban 6y ago
        The program started in 2003.
        jeffdavis 6y ago
        Oh, now I see what you mean. I think this is splitting hairs over who gets credit. Remember that Congress needed to raise the money and the taxpayers needed to pay it. From a practical standpoint, usually some credit is given for leadship to the one who gets a program off the ground. It seems fair in this case that GWB gets credit for that. You can also look at later people over a longer span of time and give them credit/blame for maintaining and administering it, as well (or letting it stagnate, like his pandemic plan, unfortunately). The main point here is that the GWB presidency was not black and white. I think he was a good person and made many good decisions and one really bad one. Quite possibly, with a different VP, he would be a lauded and dignified president, and a lot of things would be different. Or, if his pandemic plan had been maintained, and bore fruit today (that is showed benefits in fighting coronavirus), it may have redeemed his presidency entirely.
        boomboomsubban 6y ago
        I try not to remember war criminals for all the good things they did.
  - majewsky 6y ago
    George W. Bush held office for 8 years. You may be thinking of his father, George H. W. Bush.
    - boomboomsubban 6y ago
      Bush started that program in 2003.
JackFr 6y ago
I’m not sure anything I can say will convince you that he had any but evil intentions. But consider at the time, the United States had just suffered an unprecedented terrorist attack, the conventional wisdom (and much intelligence) was that Iraq held chemical weapons and finally the United States was engaging the Iraqi military on a regular basis as the sole enforcer of the UN sanctioned no fly zone. I won’t argue that the Iraq War wasn’t a mistake. It was, but it was made in good faith and largely, I think, out of fear.
- Daishiman 6y ago
  I remember quite well when the US administration was displaying a parade of outright lies for months and months whose only purpose was to justify a war. He was a warmonger. His aides and his vice president stood to make tons of money out of that war.

nl 6y ago

Any normal mildly competent government does the same.

Iv 6y ago

Pandemic preparedness is one of the simplest thing in the world: have trained personnel, listen to a few epidemiologist expert when it comes to quarantine, make sure a few of the incredibly cheap and easy to manufacture protective equipments are available. The GWB admin still had the level of competence to organize something like the last Iraq war so it made sense it could have pandemic preparedness which is orders of magnitudes easier. I don't think the US public really realize how incompetent and dumb the current administration looks from abroad.