Pres Bush:I can't believe a 10th grader like me is smarter than you!

President Bush,

I don't think our troops should continue to be in Iraq and Afghanistan. Your plan to "help" these people clearly isn't working. You are a long ways from developing a stable democratic government for them. You also say that you are providing these people with a safer environment, but it's just the opposite. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan are living in constant fear every single day. We are constantly forcing them out of their homes and killing many innocent people. Our soldiers are also dying, and most of them don't even agree with what they are fighting for. Keeping the troops in these countries is also very costly. It is currently costing us 200 billion dollars. This money could go towards something more important such as education or medical research. Now, many countries also hate America. We have lost many allies and other countries see us only as rude, greedy, and controlling.

In some ways, this reminds me of the war we had with Cuba. Both wars started with simple, ignorant wants. Our current war is based on oil, while the war we had with Cuba was based on sugarcane. Another example I would like to mention is the war we had with Japan. This war cost tons of money to begin with, and then after the war, we spent even more money to rebuild the country. In the end, though, we had a better relationship with Japan. Learning from this, I think that we should use the tons of money we are spending on our war alone to focus on rebuilding the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan. Then maybe we can gain back all of the respect we lost from them and get along. Lastly, I would like to bring up the conflict we had with Hawaii. This was a neat little island on its own that was functioning just fine without us, but we had to be greedy and take over the place. We don't need to Americanize Iraq and Afghanistan, like we did with Hawaii. We are already causing enough trouble and damage.

To conclude, I would like to say that you are indeed leading American in the wrong direction and you need to start using common sense. You act like everything is just perfect over there, but it's not. You need to face reality. If we slowly bring our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, I believe they will function just fine on their own. I hope you realize that starting a war isn't something to be proud of.

Your Top Advisor,

Jennifer

P.S.
I can't believe a 10th grader like me is smarter than you!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/30/193738/32

http://www.spectacle.org/0900/democracy.html

George Bush is not smart enough to be President of the United States.

The presidency, which is the head of the "executive branch", is the most difficult, powerful and scary executive job in America (I will not be presumptuous enough to say the world, though it may be.) The man who can send in troops, launch missiles, and make quieter decisions resulting in the life and death of his constitutents and others, should have a mix of qualities, in my opinion. Intelligence is first, because its a complex, chaotic job, where difficult and dangerous decisions have to be made in real time, and where the consequences of doing the wrong thing are enormous.

I want the president to be learned. A serious grounding in history at a minimum, would allow him to avoid commiting old errors in current situations. A broad study of ethics might spur him to think carefully about actions that harm some group of people to benefit another (which include most of the decisions he makes.) And to refrain from lying to the American people. We may not have had a president who avoided lying since Harry Truman (and I'm not sure who the last one was before that.)

I also want the president to have heart, because there can be no ethics without it, but that is not today's subject.

By my criteria, George W. Bush is a man of mediocre intelligence and learning, and not qualified to be president. He is the son of another such man, who was also not qualified, as I thought the American people had figured out in 1992.