Guide Note

This is Mahalo's Guide to the Bush Administration. Please see our George W. Bush page for links to biographical information, commentary and specific events and policies.

Key domestic policies of Bush's first term included a ban on partial-birth abortions, the creation of an office in the White House to oversee faith-based community initiatives and the No Child Left Behind act, a bill aimed at monitoring student and teacher performance more rigorously.

Bush had been in office for only 8 months when Al Qaeda attacked New York City on September 11, 2001, destroying the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and a portion of The Pentagon. Bush responded, in part, by sending troops into Afghanistan, where the ruling party, the Taliban, had helped to fund and train the 9/11 terrorists and refused to turn over their "guest," 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden to the U.S. Domestically, he also pushed for the passage of the Patriot Act, which expanded the reach and authority to the law enforcement and intelligence communities.

During his 2002 State of the Union address, Bush justified the invasion of Afghanistan, and future military actions, under what has come to be known as the Bush Doctrine of preventive war. He also coined the term "Axis of Evil" to refer to nations that posed an existential threat to U.S. Security, and named Iraq, North Korea and Iran as members.

The invasion of Iraq began on March 20, 2003, with a U.S.-led invasion known as Operation Iraqi Freedom. The chaotic atmosphere after the U.S. brought down the ruling party of Saddam Hussein paved the way for the Iraq insurgency that has continued throughout Bush's administration.

Bush continued to support American efforts in Iraq throughout his second term, despite increasing political and public pressure to leave the increasing-unpopular war. In a January 10, 2007, he introduced a plan for an Iraq Troop Surge, hoping to increase security in Baghdad to allow the newly-trained Iraqi police and army to begin the work of taking control of their country. The surge, under the command of General David Petraeus, succeeded at limiting violence in the Iraqi capital, but it is still debated whether or not it fulfilled its basic goals of advancing the cause of safety and security in Iraq.

Bush's major domestic priority at the start of his second term of office was Social Security reform, or more specifically, the plan to partially privatize Social Security through the use of private accounts. The unpopular measure never passed.

Eventually, the Bush Administration itself was consumed by a variety of controversies and scandals. The failure of the federal government to act quickly when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans was blamed by many on Bush, who had been making public appearances when the storm actually hit and who praised FEMA director Michael Brown's efforts in the region despite the mounting horror of the hurricane' aftermath.

An aid to Vice President Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, was eventually convicted of perjuring himself during an investigation into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, and was pardoned by Bush.

Controversy has surrounded the firing of several U.S. Attorneys part of the way through Bush's second term, and whether or not these firings were politically motivated.

Much of the controversy surrounds the Bush Administration's views on the powers vested in the executive by the Constitution. Issues such as the use of aggressive interrogation techniques, like waterboarding, the frequent use of signing statements by the President to modify bills before they become law and the fight over domestic surveillance and telecom immunity all relate back to this central argument between those who feel that the President has ultimate authority on matters of national security and those who desire more oversight.