London Telegraph columnist: History will say we "misunderestimated" Bush

All presidents make mistakes, even the great ones. Abraham Lincoln, until he settled on Ulyssess S. Grant to command his armies in 1864, was a poor manager of his generals in the eastern theatre of the Civil War.

George W. Bush has erred as well. His reliance, although partial, on weapons of mass destruction to state his case for going to war in Iraq, his delay in initiating the troop surge, as well as the Hurricane Katrina fiasco (although local government officials such as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin should also hang their heads in shame) will stand as black marks on his record.

But Andrew Roberts of the London Telegraph thinks history will be kind to Bush.

George W Bush will be remembered for his responses to 9/11 in Afghanistan and Iraq, but since neither of those conflicts has yet ended in victory or defeat, it is far too early categorically to assume - as left-wingers, anti-war campaigners and almost all media commentators already do - that his historical reputation will be permanently down in the doldrums next to poor old Warren Harding's.

I suspect that historians of the future will instead see Bush's decision to insist upon a "surge" of reinforcements being sent into Iraq, combined with a complete change of anti-insurgency tactics as configured by General Petraeus, as the moment when the conflict was turned around there, in the West's favour.

No one - least of all Bush himself - denies that mistakes were made in the early days after the (unexpectedly early) fall of Baghdad, and historians will quite rightly examine them. But once the decades have put the stirring events of those years into their proper historical context, four great facts will emerge that will place Bush in a far better light than he currently enjoys.

The overthrow and execution of a foul tyrant, Saddam Hussein; the liberation of the Afghan people from the Taliban; the smashing of the terrorist networks of al-Qa'eda in that country and elsewhere and, finally, the protection of the American people from any further atrocities on US soil since 9/11, is a legacy of which to be proud.

Technorati tags: War on Terror Iraq terrorism Bush Afghanistan Katrina