Truth and Consequences

Here are a few facts about George H. Bush you won't hear at his eulogy:

He slashed funding for AIDS research and education, insisting AIDS was "the consequence of a lifestyle choice."  In other words, if you die of AIDS it's your own damn fault-- and no less than what a pervert like you deserves.  He banned those diagnosed with AIDS from entering the country.

The first Gulf War was not about freedom or democracy, it was fought to return a tyrannical king to his throne.  The Emir of Kuwait is so oppressive that it's no exaggeration to say most citizens-- particularly women-- would actually have been better off under Saddam Hussein.  (That's not because Hussein was good, it's because  the Emir is even worse.)  Bush tacitly admitted this was a war for oil during his losing campaign to Bill Clinton, making the spurious argument that if we hadn't gone to war "gasoline would be $12 a gallon."

As Commander-in-Chief he authorized the bombing of civilian targets, a war crime punished at Nuremberg with death by hanging.  He not only bombed water treatment facilities, he then embargoed the chemicals needed to purify drinking water.  Over half a million Iraqis under the age of 18 died of dysentery.  (A decade later his son would make the claim "They hate us because we are free."  They may have had a few, more obvious reasons.)

Despite promising during the build up to his war that borders would be returned to their previous boundaries, in fact Kuwait gained several hundred miles of oil-rich Iraqi territory.

After campaigning against supply-side economics during his first run for president, referring to it as "voodoo economics," he unflinchingly rotated his position 180 degrees when it became politically expedient to do so.  Inevitably, these policies led to an economic collapse which denied him a second term.

I consider this the consequence of a lifestyle choice.