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From an article in the online-only newspaper New York Times, published on January 1, 2090.
It’s hard to imagine this now, but while he was in office, George W. Bush was considered by many of his critics the worst United States President in history. The 44th US President, liberator of 60 million citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan, focal point of a unique dual-nation national holiday on Bush’s birthday, and the man responsible for the birth of democratic ideals which have now spread throughout the Middle and Near east, suffered abuse from critics in the media comparable only to that suffered by America’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Although their leadership styles where vastly different, and they were two very different kinds of men, they shared similar circumstances in that they presided over wars that were initially backed by large majorities of the American public who then turned upon them both with unprecedented savagery when the wars dragged on inconclusively for several years. Virtually alone, both men prosecuted their wars to ultimate victory, with enormous long-term successful consequences for all three nations.
Lincoln, of course, had much the harder job. The American Civil War ultimately cost the nation 650,000 lives, 2% of her population, an equivalent of 8 million lives today. The total American deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stood at just over 5,000 at the close of major hostilities in 2009. It became public knowledge at the end of his term in office that Bush personally visited with the families of fully a quarter of the war’s fatalities, personally composed and signed letters of condolence to the families of each soldier lost, and quietly visited the wounded in military hospitals hundreds of times. This exacted an enormous emotional toll on the 44th president, and almost certainly contributed to his death of heart disease three years into the one term-presidency of his successor, Barack Obama.
The addition of Bush’s visage to that of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan is expected to be completed in time for the celebration of Bush’s 150th birthday on July 6th, 2096.
