Yes, he is a great president. Clinton left so much negativity on his plate.
Facing opposition in Congress, Bush held town hall-style public meetings across the U.S. in 2001 to increase public support for his plan for a $1.3 trillion tax cut. Bush and his economic advisers argued that unspent government funds should be returned to taxpayers. With reports of the threat of recession from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Bush argued that such a tax cut would stimulate the economy and create jobs. In the end, five Senate Democrats crossed party lines to join Republicans in approving Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut program — one of the largest in U.S. history.
Under the Bush Administration, unemployment peaked at a high of 6.2% in June 2003, and is currently at a low of 4.4%. The economy has remained strong, with Wall Street setting several record highs and the GDP experiencing healthy growth. Critics argue that the economy, however strong, is only benefiting the wealthy, and not the majority of middle and lower-class citizens.
The effect of Bush's tax cuts on the upper, middle and lower class is contentious, with some observers arguing that the cuts have benefited the nation's most wealthy households at the expense of the middle and lower class, while others have claimed the exact opposite.
The No Child Left Behind Act aims to close the achievement gap, measures student performance, provides options to parents with students in low-performing schools, and targets more federal funding to low-income schools. Critics argue that Bush has underfunded his own program, and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy has claimed: "The tragedy is that these long overdue reforms are finally in place, but the funds are not." Many educational experts are critical of the reforms in question, claiming that NCLB allows some students to flee failing public schools instead of improving those schools. Others contend that NCLBA's focus on "high stakes testing" and quantitative outcomes is counterproductive. Bush increased funding for the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health in his first years of office, and created education programs to strengthen the grounding in science and mathematics for American high school students. However, funding for NIH failed to keep up with inflation in 2004 and 2005, and was actually cut in 2006, the first such cut in 36 years.
Bush appointed First Lady Laura Bush to oversee an initiative to improve opportunities and education for inner-city boys.
Bush promoted increased de-regulation and investment options in social services, leading Republican efforts to pass the Medicare Act of 2003, which added prescription drug coverage to Medicare and created Health Savings Accounts, which would permit people to set aside a portion of their Medicare tax to build a "nest egg". The elderly group, AARP worked with the Bush Administration on the program and gave their endorsement. Bush said the law, estimated to cost US$400 billion over the first 10 years, would give the elderly "better choices and more control over their health care".
President Bush began his second term by outlining a major initiative to reform Social Security, which was facing record deficit projections beginning in 2005. Bush made it the centerpiece of his agenda despite contrary beliefs in the media and in the U.S. Congress, which saw the program as the "third rail of politics," with the American public being suspicious of any attempt to change it. It was also widely believed to be the province of the Democratic Party, with Republicans in the past having been accused of efforts to dismantle or privatize it. In his 2005 State of the Union address, Bush discussed the allegedly impending bankruptcy of the program and attacked political inertia against reform. He proposed options to permit Americans to divert a portion of their Social Security tax (FICA) into secured investments, creating a "nest egg" that he claimed would enjoy steady growth. Despite emphasizing safeguards and remaining open to other plans, Bush's proposal was criticized for its high cost, and Democrats attacked it as an effort to partially privatize the system, and for leaving Americans open to the whims of the market. Bush embarked on a 60-day national tour, campaigning vigorously for his initiative in media events ("Conversations on Social Security") in a largely unsuccessful attempt to gain support from the general public. According to at least one poll, Bush failed to convince the public that the Social Security program was in crisis.
Arriving in office in 2001, President Bush withdrew United States support of the then pending Kyoto Protocol pursued and supported by the Clinton Administration, an amendment to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change seeking to impose mandatory targets for reducing "greenhouse gas" emissions - carbon dioxide emitted in the burning of fossil fuels. Bush asserted that uncertainties existed in the climate change science with regard to the degree to which human activity is the cause and cited concerns regarding the treaty's impact on US industry and the US economy and the fact that China and India had not yet agreed.
In 2002, the Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency issued a Climate Action Report concluding that the climate changes observed over several decades "are likely mostly due to human activities". While the EPA report was initially hailed by environmentalists critical of the Bush administration as a "180-degree turn on the science" reversing "everything the president has said about global warming since he took office," within days President Bush dismissed the report as being "put out by the bureaucracy" and reaffirmed his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol. The Bush Administration's stance on global warming, and in particular its questioning the consensus of scientists, would remain controversial in the scientific and environmental communities during his presidency. In 2004, the Director of NASA's Goddard Institute, James Hansen, came out publicly and harshly accusing the Administration of misinforming the public by suppressing the scientific evidence of the dangers of greenhouse gases, saying the Bush Administration wanted to hear only scientific results that “fit predetermined, inflexible positions” and edited reports to make the dangers sound less threatening in what he asserted was "direct opposition to the most fundamental precepts of science."
In 2006, former Vice President Al Gore made a documentary film from his book on global warming entitled "An Inconvenient Truth", and media attention to the issue again peaked. President Bush said that he had consistently noted that global warming is a serious problem but asserted there is a "debate over whether its manmade or naturally caused" and maintained that regardless of that debate his administration was working on plans to make America less dependent on foreign oil "for economic and national security reasons." In his 2007 State of the Union Address, President Bush renewed his pledge from his 2006 State of the Union Address to work toward diminished reliance on foreign oil by reducing fossil fuel consumption and increasing alternative fuel production, saying, "America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change."
In 2006, Bush declared the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument, creating the largest marine reserve to date. It comprises 84 million acres and is home to 7,000 species of fish, birds and other marine animals, many of which are specific to only those islands. The move was hailed by conservationists for "its foresight and leadership in protecting this incredible area." At the signing ceremony Bush stated, "Our duty is to use the land and seas wisely or sometimes not use them at all. Good stewardship of the environment is not just a personal responsibility. It is a public value."
Starting in 1995 after the Republican Party gained control of both houses of Congress, federal funding for medical research involving the creation or destruction of human embryos through the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health was forbidden by passage of the Dickey Amendment, named for Congressman Jay Dickey who introduced the amendment, a rider attached to the relevant agency appropriation bills that would be signed by President Bill Clinton and President Bush for the next several years. Bush had asserted that he supported limited stem cell research, but only to the extent that human embryos are not destroyed in order to harvest additional stem cells. On August 9, 2001, Bush signed an executive order lifting the ban on federal funding for the 71 existing "lines" of stem cells. However, the ability of these existing lines to provide an adequate medium for testing has been questioned, as testing can only be done on 12 of the original lines and there are fears that these lines are corrupted.
On July 19, 2006, President Bush used his veto power for the first time in his presidency to veto the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R.810), a bill that would have reversed the Dickey Amendment, permitting federal money to be used for research where stem cells are derived from the destruction of an embryo.
In 2006, Bush somewhat shifted focus to re-emphasize immediate and comprehensive immigration reform. Going beyond calls from Republicans and conservatives to secure the border, Bush demanded that Congress create a "temporary guest-worker program" to allow more than 12 million illegal immigrants to obtain legal status. Bush continues to argue that the lack of legal status denies the protections of U.S. laws to millions of people who face dangers of poverty and exploitation, and penalizes employers despite a demand for immigrant labor. On May 15, 2006, Bush proposed expanding "Basic Pilot," an online system to allow employers to easily confirm the eligibility of new hires; creating a new identification card for all foreign workers; and increasing penalties for businesses that violate immigration laws. Bush urged Congress to provide additional funding for border security, and committed to deploying 6,000 National Guard troops to the United States-Mexico border.
On August 17, 2006, a U.S. district court judge in Detroit ruled that warrantless and otherwise congressionally unauthorized eavesdropping on telephone calls under the Terrorist Surveillance Program were unconstitutional. The judge agreed to place her ruling on hold pending an appeal.
On August 28, 2006, Congress approved a bill that made the detainee interrogation program legal. The bill was in response to the Supreme Court's decision in June that the program is illegal. It was the second time Bush tried to approve it through Congress.
One of the worst natural disasters in the nation’s history, Hurricane Katrina, struck early in Bush’s second term. Katrina was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third-strongest landfalling U.S. hurricane on record. Katrina formed in late August during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and devastated much of the north-central Gulf Coast of the United States, particularly New Orleans.
President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana on August 27, and in Mississippi and Alabama on August 28; he authorized DHS and FEMA to manage the disaster, but his announcement failed to spur these agencies to action. The eye of the hurricane made landfall on August 29, and New Orleans started to flood due to the levee breaches; later that day, Bush declared that a major disaster existed in Louisiana, officially authorizing FEMA to start using federal funds to help with the recovery effort. On August 30, Department of Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff declared it "an incident of national significance," triggering the first use of the newly created National Response Plan. Several days later, on September 2, National Guard troops first entered the city of New Orleans. The same day, President Bush toured parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and declared that the success of the recovery effort up to that point was "not enough." Due to mounting criticism as the disaster in New Orleans intensified during the days of inaction, President Bush claimed full responsibility for the failures on the part of the federal government in its response to the hurricane.
Both local and federal governments were vehemently criticized for their response to Katrina, which was considered insufficient and disorganized. Criticisms of Bush focused on three main issues. First, leaders from both parties attacked the president for having appointed incompetent leaders to positions of power at FEMA, most notably Michael D. Brown. Second, many people argued that the inadequacy of the federal response was the result of the Iraq War and the demands it placed on the armed forces and the federal budget. Third, in the days immediately following the disaster, President Bush denied having received warnings about the possibility of floodwaters breaching the levees protecting New Orleans. However, the presidential videoconference briefing of Aug. 28 shows Max Mayfield warning the President that overflowing the levees was "obviously a very, very grave concern." Critics claimed that the President was misrepresenting his administration's role in what they saw as a flawed response.
Eight months into George W. Bush's presidency, nineteen hijackers (fifteen from Saudi Arabia, two from the UAE and one each from Egypt and Lebanon) sponsored by the al Qaeda group headed by Osama bin Laden carried out terrorist attacks in which they commandeered commercial aircraft, flying two into the two World Trade Center Towers in New York city, one into the Pentagon, and one, apparently headed toward Washington, D.C., into a field in Pennsylvania, after passengers forced a crash-landing. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in what became known as the September 11, 2001 attacks, most in the collapse of the two World Trade Center towers.
President Bush talks on the phone with Vice President Dick Cheney while looking out a window of Air Force One, September 11, 2001.
The September 11 terrorist attacks were a major turning point in Bush's presidency. At the time of the attacks, President Bush was visiting an elementary school in Florida when Chief of Staff Andrew Card informed him that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. After being informed that the second tower had also been hit, Bush remained in the classroom for several minutes until the children finished reading their story before flying to air bases in Louisiana and Nebraska before returning to Washington, D.C. in the late afternoon.
That evening, he addressed the U.S from the Oval Office, promising a strong response to the attacks but emphasizing the need for the nation to come together and comfort the families of the victims. On September 14, he visited the World Trade Center site, meeting with Mayor Rudy Giuliani and firefighters, police officers and volunteers. Bush addressed the gathering via megaphone while standing on a heap of rubble:
“I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
President Bush addresses rescue workers at Ground Zero in New York, September 14, 2001.
In a September 20, 2001 speech, President Bush condemned Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and issued the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, where bin Laden was operating, an ultimatum to "hand over the terrorists, or share in their fate." President Bush declared a global War on Terrorism, and after the Afghan Taliban regime was not forthcoming with Osama bin Laden, he ordered the invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban regime.
The Bush Administration's foreign policy is largely seen as dominated by its declaration of a global "War on Terror" and the Iraq War. The War on Terror, the wars in Afganistan and Iraq, and the Administration's dealings with North Korea are addressed invidually in subsections below. Other aspects of President Bush's foreign policy include the following.
The Bush administration withdrew US support for several international agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol, the International Criminal Court, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) with Russia. It pursued a national missile defense which was previously barred by the ABM treaty and was never ratified by Congress.[103] Bush also expressed U.S. support for the defense of Taiwan following the stand-off in March 2001 with the People's Republic of China over the crash between an EP-3E American spyplane and a Chinese air force jet, leading to the detention of U.S. personnel. In 2003-04, Bush authorized U.S. military intervention in Haiti and Liberia to protect U.S. interests.
Bush, President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meet at the Red Sea Summit in Aqaba, Jordan on June 4, 2003.
Bush emphasized a "hands-off" approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in wake of rising violence and the alleged failure of the Clinton Administration's efforts to negotiate. Bush denounced Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for his support of the violence and militant groups. But prompted by European leaders, he became the first American President to embrace a two-state solution in which an independent Palestine would exist side-by-side with Israel. Bush sponsored dialogs between Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas but continued his boycott of Arafat. Bush also supported Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and lauded the democratic elections held in Palestine following Arafat's death.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with George W. Bush inspects the Malacanang Palace Honor Guards during the latter's 8-hour State Visit to the Philippines in October 2003
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with George W. Bush inspects the Malacanang Palace Honor Guards during the latter's 8-hour State Visit to the Philippines in October 2003
In his State of the Union Address in January 2003, Bush outlined a five-year strategy for global emergency AIDS relief, the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. Bush announced $15 billion for this effort—$3 billion per year for five years—but requested less in annual budgets, though some members of Congress added amendments to increase the requested amounts. The emergency relief effort is led by U.S. Ambassador Randall L. Tobias, former CEO of Eli Lilly and Global AIDS Coordinator at the Department of State. At the time of the speech, $9 billion was earmarked for new programs in AIDS relief for the 15 countries most affected by HIV/AIDS, another $5 billion for continuing support of AIDS relief in 100 countries where the U.S. already had bilateral programs established, and an additional $1 billion towards the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Almost one quarter of the $15 billion went to religious groups that tend to emphasize sexual abstinence over condom use. This budget represented more money contributed to fight AIDS globally than all other donor countries combined.
Bush condemned the attacks by militia forces on the people of Darfur, and denounced the killings in Sudan as genocide.[105] Bush said that an international peacekeeping presence was critical in Darfur, but opposed referring the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court.
President George W. Bush traverses Cross Hall in the White House with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to attend a press conference in the East Room in 2006 discussing the Middle east Crisis between Israel and Lebanon.
President George W. Bush traverses Cross Hall in the White House with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to attend a press conference in the East Room in 2006 discussing the Middle east Crisis between Israel and Lebanon.
President George W. Bush, then-President of Mexico, Vicente Fox and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper stand in front of "El Castillo" in Chichen Itza, March 30, 2006.
Bush began his second term with an emphasis on improving strained relations with European nations. He appointed long-time advisor Karen Hughes to oversee a global public relations campaign to improve the image of the U.S. and significantly increased development aid to countries with a focus on encouraging democracy and human rights. Bush strongly lauded the pro-democracy struggles in Georgia and Ukraine and the election of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority. He led international pressure against Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon. In March 2006, Bush visited India, leading to renewed ties between the two countries, particularly in areas of nuclear energy and counterterrorism cooperation. Bilateral relations between the U.S.A. on the one hand and Germany and Canada on the other also improved following the election of conservative governments in those countries. However, midway through Bush's second term, many analysts observed a retreat from his freedom and democracy agenda, highlighted in policy changes toward some oil-rich former Soviet republics in central Asia.
Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, both undemocratically elected and fiercely autocratic, received official state visits to the White House, along with increased economic and military assistance. The President had encouraged both leaders to hold free and fair elections early on in his second term, but in fact neither leader carried out significant reforms. The democratic election of the Hamas organization in the parliamentary elections of the Palestinian Territories, along with democratic gains in legislatures for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hezbollah in Lebanon, all of whom are seen as terrorist organizations by the United States, also contributed to a far less aggressive approach to democratic reform world-wide from the Bush administration. Reports in late 2006 suggested that pro-democracy groups across the Middle East had become "pessimistic about the prospects for meaningful reform."
After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda organization of Osama bin Laden and the invasion of Afganistan in response, President Bush discussed a global War on Terror in his January 29, 2002 State of the Union address which is most remembered for his assertion of an "axis of evil", an alliance between terrorists and states like North Korea, Iran and Iraq, which alliance he said was "arming to threaten the peace of the world" and "posed a grave and growing danger".
President George W. Bush and Laura Bush look over the World Trade Center site during a visit to Ground Zero in New York City to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
President George W. Bush and Laura Bush look over the World Trade Center site during a visit to Ground Zero in New York City to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The Bush Administration proceeded to assert a right and intention to engage in preemptive war, also called preventive war, in response to perceived threats, arguing that the prevailing "concept of imminent threat" as justification for the use of force under international law and prior United States foreign policy needed to be "adapted" due to the supposition that "rogue states" would "rely on terror, and potentially, weapons of mass destruction" to attack the United States. This would form a basis for what became known as the Bush Doctrine. President Bush's broader "War on Terror", allegations of an "axis of evil", and, in particular, the assertion of a broader right to engage in preemptive war, would begin to weaken or divide unprecedented levels of international and domestic support for President Bush and United States action against al Qaeda following the September 11 attacks. Allegations of abuse by U.S. troops accompanied calls from European and Asian leaders to shut down detention centers in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. Dissent from, and criticism of, President Bush's leadership in the War on Terror would expand with the war in Iraq. In 2006, a National Intelligence Estimate entitled, "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," and expressing the combined opinion of the United States' own intelligence agencies, concluded that the Iraq War had become the "cause celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement" and that Muslims who describe themselves as jihadists were increasing in "number and geographic dispersion."
On October 7, 2001, U.S. and British forces initiated bombing campaigns that led to the November 13 arrival of Northern Alliance troops in Kabul. By December 2001, the UN had organized both the Bonn agreement, which installed the Afghan Interim Authority chaired by Hamid Karzai, and the ISAF, a multinational fighting force whose numbers and territory have since steadily increased. However, efforts to kill or capture al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in President Bush's later criticized words, "dead or alive", failed as he escaped a battle in December 2001 in the mountainous region of Tora Bora, which escape the Bush Administration later acknowledged resulted from a failure to commit enough U.S. ground troops. Bin Laden and al Qaeda's number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as the Afghan leader of the Taliban, Mohammed Omar, remained at large as of January 2007.
Despite the initial success in driving the Taliban from power in Kabul, the war continued as by early 2003 the Taliban was regrouping, amassing new funds and recruits. Frustrating the government of Afghan President Karzai and the NATO and US forces, as late as 2006 theTaliban insurgency appeared larger, fiercer, and better organized than expected, with large-scale allied offensives such as the Operation Mountain Thrust attaining limited success.
As of 2005, NATO had been given control over western and southern parts of the country, and in September 2006, NATO agreed to assume control over operations throughout Afghanistan after the United States pledged to assign 12,000 troops to the force under NATO command, while keeping another 10,000 special operations and other troops operating under U.S. command through the country. In an address to the United Nations that month, President Bush pledged the United States' continuing support for the war against the Taliban: "We'll help you defeat these enemies and build a free Afghanistan that will never again oppress you, or be a safe haven for terrorists." As of October 2006, foreign troops in the region numbered more than 41,000.
Beginning with his January 29, 2002 State of the Union address referenced above, President Bush began publicly focusing attention on Iraq, which he labelled as part of an "axis of evil" allied with terrorists and posing "a grave and growing danger" to U.S. interests through possession of "weapons of mass destruction". In the latter half of 2002, Central Intelligence Agency reports requested by the Administration contained assertions that Saddam Hussein was intent on reconstituting nuclear weapons programs, had not properly accounted for Iraqi biological weapons and chemical weapons material in violation of UN sanctions, and that some Iraqi missiles had a range greater than allowed by the UN sanctions. In particular, the CIA drew together an October 1, 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, pulling together the intelligence, estimations, opinions and judgments of 16 different U.S. intelligence services, including dissenting views or challenges to various assertions. Several versions of this report were or have been produced with varying levels of declassification, inclusion of dissenting opinions, and completeness. President Bush received a one-page summary of the National Intelligence Estimate. The question of whether the Bush Administration manipulated or exaggerated the threat and evidence of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction capabilities or attempted to create a tie between Saddam Hussein and the al Qaeda terrorists who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks would eventually become a major point of criticism and controversy for the President.
President Bush, with Naval Flight Officer Lieutenant Ryan Philips, in the flight suit he wore for his televised arrival and speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003.
In late 2002 and early 2003, President Bush urged the United Nations to enforce Iraqi disarmament mandates, precipitating a diplomatic crisis. On November 13, 2002, under UN Security Council Resolution 1441, Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei led UN weapons inspectors in Iraq. There was controversy over the efficacy of inspections and lapses in Iraqi compliance. UN inspection teams departed Iraq upon U.S. advisement given four days prior to the U.S. invasion, despite their requests for more time to complete their tasks. The U.S. initially sought a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of military force pursuant to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. Upon facing vigorous opposition from several nations (primarily France and Germany), however, the U.S. dropped the bid for UN approval and began to prepare for war; Benjamin Ferencz, a former chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials argued that for these actions Bush, with his Administration, could be prosecuted for war crimes. Kofi Annan, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, as well as leaders of several nations made similar statements, implying that the attack constitutes a war crime.
In order to comply with the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution by Congress, on March 18, 2003, President Bush certified to Congress that he had "determined that: (1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and (2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."
The war effort was joined by more than 20 other nations (most notably the United Kingdom) who the Bush Administrartion designated the "coalition of the willing". The invasion of Iraq commenced on March 20, 2003, ostensibly to pre-empt Iraqi WMD deployment and remove Saddam from power. The Iraqi military was quickly defeated. The capital, Baghdad, fell on April 9, 2003. On May 1, 2003, President Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq in a speech from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. This speech would become known as his "Mission Accomplished" speech due to a banner with that slogan in view overhead. At the outset of the speech, President Bush stated: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world."
The initial success of U.S. operations had increased President Bush's popularity, but the U.S. and allied forces faced a growing insurgency led by sectarian groups. As the situation deteriorated, Bush's May 1, 2003 "Mission Accomplished" speech would be criticized as premature."The Bush Administration was also criticisized in subsequent months following the report of the Iraq Survey Group, which did not find the large quantities of weapons that the regime was believed to possess. On December 14, 2005, while discussing the WMD issue, Bush stated that "It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." Bush nevertheless continued to assert the war had been worthwhile and confirmed he would have made the same decision if he had known more.
Iraqi elections and a referendum to approve a constitution were held in January and December 2005. Initial media reports of high voter turnout were overestimated, and were later estimated at less than 50%. In 2004 through 2006, the siuation in Iraq deteriorated, and the country appeared to be on the brink of, if not already engaged in, a full scale civil war. Bush's policies regarding global terrorism and the war in Iraq met increasing criticism, with increasing demands within the United States in 2006 to set a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq. Sectarian violence and political deadlock in Iraq at the end of 2006, after the deaths of more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers and an estimated 654,965 Iraqi deaths (according to a Lancet survey putting the number of deaths in a range of 392,979 to 942,636), increased negative impressions of Bush's leadership and of the situation in Iraq. In October 2006 Bush commented on the survey "six hundred thousand or whatever they guessed at is just, it's not credible". The Iraq Body Count project disputed the Lancet survey and gave their own estimate of around 60,000. Previously, in December 2005, Bush estimated that 30,000 Iraqis had died in the war. Following the Lancet survey being published, when asked again, Bush said: "I stand by the figure, a lot of innocent people have lost their life."
In 2006 a National Intelligence Estimate (a consensus report of the heads of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies) asserted that the Iraq war had increased Islamic radicalism and worsened the terror threat. While President Bush admitted by the end of 2006 that there were strategic mistakes made in regards to the stability of Iraq, he maintained he would not change the overall Iraq strategy. Bush and his aides continued to stress his belief of the necessity to "stay the course" in Iraq. They accused critics, mainly Democrats who have called for a U.S. troop pullout or a timetable for withdrawal, of advocating a policy of "cut-and-run".
On November 28, 2006, facing mounting criticism for his Iraq war policy, Bush told the NATO Summit 2006 in Latvia that "We'll continue to be flexible, and we'll make the changes necessary to succeed. But there's one thing I'm not going to do: I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete." On January 10, 2007 Bush addressed the U.S about the situation in Iraq. In his speech, he made references to changes to be made, including the "surge" of 21,500 more troops for Iraq, a job program for Iraqis, more reconstruction proposals, and 1.2 billion dollars for these programs. At this point specific, detailed information about the planned changes have not yet been officially announced. The "surge" is opposed by many influential politicians in Washington, some of whom belong to the President's own party, such as Senator Hagel and Senator Coleman.
President Bush publicly condemned Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, naming North Korea one of three states in an "axis of evil," and saying that "the United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons." Within months, "both countries had walked away from their respective commitments under the U.S.-DPRK Agreed Framework of October 1994."
North Korea's October 9, 2006 detonation of a nuclear device further complicated President Bush's foreign policy, which centered for both terms of his presidency on "[preventing] the terrorists and regimes who seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons from threatening the United States and the world."President Bush condemned North Korea's claims, reaffirmed his commitment to "a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," and stated that "transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States," for which North Korea would be held accountable.
On May 10, 2005, while Bush was giving a speech in the Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia, Vladimir Arutinian threw a live hand grenade towards the podium where he was standing and where Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was also seated. It landed in the crowd about 65 feet (20 meters) from the podium after hitting a girl. However, the grenade did not detonate because the red tartan (plaid) handkerchief wrapped tightly around it did not allow the firing pin to deploy fast enough. Arutinian was arrested in July 2005 and admitted to throwing the grenade. He was convicted in January 2006 and was subsequently given a life sentence