Cartoon, G. W. BUSH, end of second term in office

Cartoon 5 : 2009 end of G.W. Bush’ second term in office

This cartoon has been drawn by Chappatte. It represents Georges W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. He’s a member of the Republican party. He also served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

He is in the Oval Office. It’s the formal working space of the President of the U.S. The evolute desk and the U.S flag make it obvious. The scene takes place in 2009 and evokes the end of the second presidential term of G.W. Bush. This is what suitcases represent : his departure of the White House, it symbolizes the end of his term.

President Bush wears cow boy shoes and hat. It refers to his term as governor of the texas and to his image of american cow boy. He seems disappointed. He’s looking at a paperboard which is divided into two columns : failures and successes. President Bush looks at the results of his terms in office.

 Under the “failures”, the list is long : Bin Laden, Iraq, Afghanistan, Rest of the world, Torture, Economy, Environment. Indeed, the G. W. Bush administration confronted a deadly terrorist attack on the U.S soil, claimed by Osama Bin Laden, al-Quadea leader. In response to the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. launched the War on Teror in 2011. The Bush administration ordered the invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow Taliban regime and capture al-Quaeda operatives. Bush also launched the Iraq war, began on March, 19 2003, to eliminate the threat from Iraq’s Sunni leader, Sadam Hussein. He was suspected of developping weapons of mass destruction. The War on Teror is also known for the widespread torture and abuse of prisoners.  

 Despite the initial public support for the use of military force in reaction to 9/11 attacks and to fight terrorism, crticism about the wars and Bush administration has increased as the wars continued. It is explained on the one hand by their costs : dozens of thousands lives, $4 trillion, and a moral cost due to the torture, since Bush authorized the use of “enhanced inetrrogation techniques” labeled as torture.          Then, though those wars led to the toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the removal of Sadam Hussein from power in Iraq, both countries are still dictatorships and are not free. Above all, it did not reduce the terrorist threat. On the contrary, some consider it has increased it. Bush was critized internationally for his administration’s foreign policy.

At the end of his terms in office, half of the debt was directly bound to Bush policy choices. For instance, though without taking account of the effects of the crisis, the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the tax cuts, used to stimulate economic growth as a response to the recession, represent almot 40% of the debt.

On top of that, the Bush administration was hostile to any effort to combat climate change. The president was opposed to the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, greenhouse gas emissions rised, as the sea level and the U.S. temperatures.

Thus, it was impossible to qualify these subjects as political success. Here the artist criticizes the political choices of the bush administration, in particular its management of the terrorist threat.

Under the “successes”, a single thing : “Dodged that shoe!”. It’s a reference to Bush shoeing incident. Indeed, on December 14, 2008, an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at G.W. Bush during an Iraqi press conference. President succeed to avoid them. Here, Chappatte sarcastically expresses his opinion about the success of Bush’s policies during his terms.

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