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| 9/15/2006 12:57:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Sauer, M.D. - Letter to the Editor
Letter about Bush
When I first read Dr. Olson's letter (Aug. 28, Fillmore County Journal) comparing G.W. Bush to Lincoln and Truman I thought it was a parody of Rumsfelds' flight from reality before the veterans. Then it came to me that he was serious.
Besides Olson's insulting implied dismissal of 2/3rds of Americans collective wisdom regarding this administrations lack of competency, truthfulness, and openness, is his cavalier misuse of history. One wonders, on what planet did he study history or what planets history did he study.
Lincoln did not campaign for election as an abolitionist and was chosen by the Republicans because he was more moderate on slavery issues than other Republican candidates. The final emancipation declaration was not done until 1863. Lincoln was not vilified during his administration by Union voters and was easily re-elected in 1864. Criticism by opponents was primarily personal and not on his conduct of the war. He did not tolerate incompetence easily as witnessed by the parade of generals he appointed for the army of the Potomac culminating in Grant.
Truman was essentially in the same category. His criticism came primarily long after the fact of the atomic bomb by second guessers. The public was ecstatic at the rapid end of the war sparing American troops from invading the Japanese home land. He did not tolerate incompetence either. Witness his firing of Mac Arthur when the general's ideas would have provoked a wider response from a more belligerent communist China.
Both Lincoln and Truman knew the value of repairing a defeated enemy. Lincoln planned to (if he had not been assassinated) and Truman did have a Marshall Plan. This administrations plan appears to be a Marshall plan for Halliburton et al rather than for Iraq.
Historians will judge this President when the veil of secrecy over the administration is lifted. I will give great odds he will not be rated in the rarified standings of either Lincoln or Truman.
Robert Sauer, M.D.
Preston, MN
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