Pepe Escobar on Bush

Another character who has been brilliant in playing the Bush game has been no other than Osama "dead or alive" bin Laden, who, dead or alive, could not miss the opportunity to salute Bush via an audiotape released this week. Bin Laden said, "The question is, can America continue the war against us for several more decades? The reports and signs show us otherwise." Osama seemed to be quite amused by the "inheritance" Bush left to Obama: "If he withdraws from the war, it is a military defeat. If he continues, he drowns in economic crisis."

And this when the war in Iraq - as Paul Krugman has noted - is costing about as much each year as the insurance subsidies Obama would need to implement universal health care in the US.

Anyway, none of this is his business anymore. Bush will fade into retirement in a commute between a sleepy Dallas suburb and the Crawford ranch where he spent more than 450 days of the presidency. Whatever he does, he won't be disappointed with history’s judgment.

What a record: stolen elections, corporate greed, fraud and corruption, unlimited spending, wealth redistribution (to the top), no checks and balances, rampant militarization, the destruction of Iraq, permanent war, and unquantifiable, unrepayable national debt. Not many world emperors are able to create a vast wasteland, call it a government, and then retire.