Watched Fahrenheit 9/11 again the other day. I must say I find Moore’s documentaries pretty one-sided and a bit too emotive (though he does a good job of providing fact back-up here), but it was a timely reminder of the fuck up that has been the Bush administration. A brief clip below to stir the memory of Bush’s inauguration in 2001 – might be interesting to compare it to Obama’s next week.
There’ve been a wave of farewell posts, editorials and comments during Bush’s last weeks but the one that has stuck in my mind is Harper’s Index of numbers and stats summing up his presidency. I’ve listed a few below, but the full list can be found here.
Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the
last year of the Saddam regime: 3.6
Factor by which the cause of death was more
likely to be violence: 120
Chance that an Iraqi has fled his or her home
since the beginning of the war: 1 in 6
Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a
family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4
Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on
Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100
Number of times the defector had ever been
interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0
Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden,
“I truly am not that concerned about him”: 3/13/02
Date on which the White House announced it had
stopped looking for WMDs in Iraq: 1/12/05
Percentage change since 2001 in U.S. government
spending on paper shredding: +466
Number of press conferences at which
Bush has referred to a question as a “trick”: 14