History’s garbage heap

THE EDITOR, Madam:

America’s gross national debt passed US$40 trillion on August 21. Although President Bill Clinton is best remembered for one scandal after another, he managed to balance the nation’s budget.

He handed the keys of that somewhat stained workplace to incoming President George W. Bush, with the national debt registering over US$5 trillion. That was in 2001 but, when Bush handed over to President Barack Obama in 2009, the debt was already at US$10 trillion. Obama stayed until 2017 with the debt doubled to almost US$20 trillion and, in the 10 years with presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden sitting behind the Resolute Desk, the debt again doubled to its present astronomical figure.

Leaders of both political parties are equally responsible for horrendous mismanagement of the country’s finances, and a poll was taken to see how the public reacted. 66 per cent decided the debt was because of overspending, while 34 per cent blamed tax cuts.

With congressional midterm elections due on November 3, it’s worth noting that President Bush’s Republican Party lost control of the House and Senate in 2006, which he acknowledged as a “thumping”. Similar defeats followed in the 2010 midterms for President Obama’s Democrats. He described the heavy losses as “a shellacking”. In both years, the electorate registered contempt for the mishandling of the economy and for broken promises about ending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

History has been known to repeat itself and, with today’s troubled economy and being involved in yet another holy war in the Persian Gulf, there must be some nervous Nellies in the Republican Party. They remember that, when America launched the Iraq War to destroy the weapons of mass destruction, apparently only a figment of Saddam Hussein’s imagination, the secretary of defence was Donald Rumsfeld. He infamously predicted that the war “could last six days, six weeks, I doubt six months”, ensuring that it would be over before the intensive heat of the Iraqi summer. In fact, the war lasted from March 2003 until December 2011, and Donald Rumsfeld resigned in disgrace the day after the 2006 midterms.

There have been similar dubious predictions concerning the current Iran War. I wonder if Pete Hegseth, the decidedly outspoken current secretary of defence, also falls on his sword this November, to unceremoniously reside on history’s garbage heap.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada