The (New) Bush Doctrine

I've been thinking about rebooting this blog for quite some time and being a typical university student, the exam revision period appears to be the perfect opportunity. However, instead of launching straight back into current affairs again I'd like to venture briefly into the world of political biography. Or in this case, I'd like to argue, semi-fiction.

I was gifted W's memoir of his time in office, Decision Points, over the Christmas period. Although the book is coming up to 18 months old, in the run up to a fresh presidential stand off a review of the previous Republican administration's legacy seems topical. Bush's press team put a heavy emphasis at the time of release on its structure, with chapters covering a particular issue faced by Bush jnr during his presidency and how he responded to these. However, far beyond simply explaining his decision making process, Bush uses the chapter's to attempt a justification of the oft criticised judgements he came to. Although this succeeds in some cases, most notably for the war in Afghanistan, it fails miserably in others, particularly the 'enhanced interrogation' of suspected terrorists.

(copyright: Virgin Books)

A memoir is held to be a personal reflection on a series of events. Bush consistently refers to history, and particularly hindsight, but only two years after he left office had the view of history on his most important decisions had clearly not been established yet. As such the text depicts a Bush desperately trying to set the agenda of his legacy, most probably as a reaction to the controversy the majority of his decisions induced. It's notable that his closest contemporary, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, has barely commented on politics since he left office, never mind publishing literature on the topic of his own time in power.


Decision Points could have been a successful account of a President's use of judgement during some of the most difficult times in recent history. Instead, it is a premature, and unsuccessful, attempt at leveraging the debate over Bush's legacy, creating more criticism than it answers.