declared a “war on terrorism,” and shortly identified an “axis of evil” Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as those states most guilty of sponsoring terrorist activity.. While foreign policy le
Trang 1declared a “war on terrorism,” and shortly identified
an “axis of evil” (Iran, Iraq, and North Korea) as those
states most guilty of sponsoring terrorist activity Both
terms of his presidency have been defined by this
ini-tiative While foreign policy led to war with
Afghani-stan and a protracted war in Iraq, domestic policy was
affected by the USA Patriot Act and the creation of the
Department of Homeland Security The Office of
Strate-gic Influence was created in secret to develop
psycholog-ical means of furthering the war on terrorism,
chang-ing its name once the public discovered its existence
Bush and his administration have come under
con-stant criticism He has positioned himself as his father’s
successor, staffing his cabinet with several men associated
with the elder Bush and repeatedly referring to an Iraqi
assassination attempt (“they tried to kill my dad”) as
part of his justification for the war in Iraq His approval
rating has dipped as low as 28 percent, among the
low-est presidential approval ratings in history, and several
prominent movements have called for his impeachment, usually in response to the controversy surrounding the National Security Agency’s warrant-less surveillance His slow response to the failure of the levees in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005 has also come under fire, particularly given his support of the clearly ineffective Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Further reading: Daalder, Ivo H America Unbound: The
Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy New York: Wiley, 2005; Mansfield, Stephen The Faith of George W Bush New York: Tarcher, 2003; Minutaglio, Bill First Son: George W Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty New York: Three Riv-ers, 2001; Toobin, Jeffrey Too Close To Call: The Thirty-Six Day Battle To Decide the 2000 Election New York:
Ran-dom House, 2002
Bill Kte’pi
Bush, George W.
Black smoke billows from Ground Zero at the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001 Merely months into his presidency, the events of September 11 proved pivotal for the rest of George W Bush’s two terms.