Big Think

Question: What is the legacy of the Bush Administration?

Jim Woolsey: It will all hinge on what happens in the war.  If the war is ultimately a disaster, not just a temporary disaster that it’s been here and there … But if it’s an ultimate disaster, that’ll be President Bush’s legacy.  If we work around to defeating Al Qaeda and the remaining Sunnis in the insurgency, and hand over a structure in which maybe the Sunnis, and the Kurds, and the Shiites aren’t real happy together, but they have a constitutional structure and they’re distributing oil in some reasonably fair fashion – oil revenues – his legacy will look good because people will at the point emphasize other positive things.  For example, his commitment to moving against AIDS in Africa.  It’s really quite excellent.  And there are things that he’s done like that that I think will get a hearing if the war also comes out halfway decently.  If the war comes out in terms of total collapse, no one will remember any other good things that he did.