Bush footprints tell tales of a leader who made mistakes

The late George H.W. Bush, 41st President of America.

The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s A Psalm of Life is easily the most cited poem in transitional moments. Longfellow (1807 – 1882) was a Harvard scholar and teacher of languages who also wrote the books that he used to teach. Away from this, he found the time to put down some of the most memorable poems of all times. And so it is that we often come across the lines, “Lives of great men all remind us/We can make our lives sublime/And, departing, leave behind us/Footprints in the sands of time.”

The words echo time and again, whenever a great man sleeps. And on Friday last week America’s 41st President George H W Bush slept the sleep of the brave. Once again, the world was reminded of Longfellow’s famous imagery, “footprints in the sands of time.” Bush Senior was described as “a great patriot, a noble man, a good man and a great American.”

His memory “will be enshrined in the hearts and minds of Americans forever,” some said. For he made his life sublime and, departing, he has left his footprints in the sands of time. But what footprints, we may ask? The footprints that people leave in the sands of time often mean different things to different people. Our responses to the prints speak of our different moral communities and codes. The tributes this week point to the American moral community. This community saw “a good man, a brave man and a noble man.”

Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell called him “a humble servant and a principled leader.” He “governed with modesty and kindness,” he said. House Speaker, Paul Ryan, spoke of “a man with a gentle soul and firm resolve.” And Vice President Mike Pence saw in the fallen giant “a good man wholeft America and the world more peaceful, more secure and more prosperous.”

Pence even suggested that not writing an autobiography is a virtue. He said of Bush, “He was so modest, in fact, that he never wrote an autobiography.”

There has been no shortage of biographers, however. Some of these have seen things through different lenses from those of the praise makers of this week. Kitty Kelly published The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty in 2004. The investigative writer said things that are best left unsaid. Conversely, her reviewers were not very kind to her.

Many other Bush biographers would not agree with the superlatives of this week on Capitol Hill. Russ Baker’s Family of Secrets(2008) attempts to link the Bush family to the assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963. Baker also suggests that the Watergate Scandal that led to the fall of President Richard Nixon in 1975 was a conspiracy against Nixon. He links the departed Bush Senior to the alleged conspiracy. Kevin Philips’ American Dynasty (2004) is not any flattering either. It speaks of a “power hungry family” that would do just about anything in return for power and all that goes with it.

Sands of time

Regardless, the Bushes are a family that have made their mark and will continue to leave their DNA in the sands of time. Diverse moral universes will equally make varied value judgments about them, as is to be expected. There is a saying in journalism that facts are sacred, opinion free. Note the comma. The comma makes the saying to mean that when facts are free of opinion, they are sacred. What are the facts? Bush was an active player on the global scene even before his presidency. He was inaugurated in January 1989, as the sun was setting on the Cold War and the Soviet Empire. The following month, he met Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and they announced the end of the Cold War. In September, ordinary people brought down the Berlin Wall. In March 1990 East and West Germany became one country again. The world shifted from a theatre of bipolar superpower politics to a single giant dominated world. 

Big Brother became the solitary global prefect. In February 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, claiming it was a province of Iraq. Bush moved in a year later in Operation Desert Storm, to crush Iraq. Official estimates indicate that about 3,600 Iraqi civilians were killed while between 20,000 and 26,000 soldiers died within one year. Up to about 650 are estimated to have been buried alive. Was there a case here for war crimes and crimes against humanity? Bush Senior is also remembered for arresting President Antonio Manuela Noriega of Panama from State House in Managua over drug trafficking.

Noriega was jailed in America in 1992. Then there was the Iran-Contra Affair in his time as Ronald Reagan’s VP. The US government was involved in illegal arms deals. They secretly sold missiles to Iran. They channeled the proceeds to Nicaragua’s Contras so that they could overthrow the Daniel Ortega government.  

The Contra affair led to the fall of many people. Casper Weinberger, the Secretary of Defence, was the pick of the basket. While he was indicted, Bush Sr pardoned him in 1992 just before his trial could begin. Between the dodgy narratives of the Kitty Kellies and the laudatory superlatives of Capitol Hill reside George H W Bush’s genuine footprints in the sands of time. Someday some archeologist will excavate them. They are likely to tell the tale of a great man who made great mistakes, too. Meanwhile, as the poet said, let us learn to labour and wait. 

-The writer is a strategic public communications adviser. www.barrackmuluka.co.ke