Thread by @NatePyle79

Over the weekend, I’ve seen a lot of people express nostalgia for President Bush.

I get it. Compared to recent years, his memory feels steady. Simpler. There’s a sense that things were less complicated and compromised.

But I’m curious, what do people truly miss about him?

When the planes crashed into the towers, Bush had an incredible and impossible task before him. And while there were moments when he offered a steady response and felt measured and in control, we need to be honest about how he led us to deal with the trauma of 9/11.

We didn’t.

The implementation of the War on Terror was extremely cathartic. It made us feel that we were doing something about our enemies who hurt us. We were taking action. And it appeared to be measured and justified. We were acting for good.

It reminds me of Judah’s king, Hezekiah. The Assyrians to the north were a real, immanent, and existential threat to Judah. And so, Hezekiah did what he needed to do: he formed an alliance with Egypt. He readied himself for war.

In response, Isaiah prophesied, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have not of it.” In other words, don’t act. Rest. Be still. Know that I am God.

What if God was saying that to us? What if we should’ve been still?

What President Bush didn’t do was lead us through our grief. We weren’t led through our fear. Instead, we were led into retaliation and vengeance. And it brought out the worst in us.

Iraq.
Afghanistan.
Torture.
Spying on citizens.

Instead of fighting the internal battle against fear and terror, we externalized it. We placed it across the ocean where we could easily distance ourselves from it. It was there, in Iraq. In Afghanistan. A world away where we didn’t really have to come to terms with it.

So I wonder, do we miss Bush the president, or do we miss Bush the ex-president? The one who paints, who seems a little more open and a little more measured? The one who playfully poses with Michelle Obama?

Do we have this anachronistic picture of the man and president?

And I ask this, particularly, for us Christians who are called to view violence and death and war through the lens of the gospel and the call to love our enemies. Those of us who know that violence isn’t redemptive, but that God does redeem violence.

We’ve got hindsight, absolutely. What 20 years of war and spying did was entrench us in our grief and terror rather than help us deal with it. We couldn’t move past it. And it’s shaped our reality.

So I’m not sure what we miss. But I do get the power of nostalgia.