So, what are the five most important decisions made by American presidents over the history of the United States? My list, not necessarily in order of importance:
1. Louisiana Purchase (1803, Jefferson)
2. Monroe Doctrine (1823, Monroe)
3. Decision to fight a civil war to preserve the union (1861, Lincoln)
4. Decision to enter WWI (1917, Wilson)
5. Decision not to launch air attacks against Cuba (1962, Kennedy)
A somewhat difficult task to limit it to only five, but those are the rules. Runners-up include: signing the civil rights act, the invasion of Iraq (2003), and the post-WWII division of Europe.
What brings this up? I'm reading "The War Within" by Bob Woodward right now. In it, Woodward quotes Condi Rice as telling Bush that his decision about the surge will be one of the most important in the last 100 years, perhaps one of the four or five most important presidential decisions ever.
While I agree that deciding on the surge was important, my first reaction was not to put it in the top five. So that brought up the question in my mind of what the top five would look like, and here we are.
3 comments:
Also, isn't there the small problem with violence going down before the surge started because we negotiated with the Sunnis that were attacking us and convinced them to attack the Al Qaeda in Iraq Sunnis?
I mean, W should still get credit for what his generals come up with. The violence went down, but it wasn't because of the surge. Which, seems to sort of move it off the most important decision in 100 years category.
yeah, I let that surge comment pass because I was interested in the proposition. But talk about grandiosity! The surge won't be in the top 100, let alone the top five executive decisions. Granted, there's a tendency for what you are doing right now to seem more important than things in the dusty past, so I can forgive that sentiment to a degree. But top five? Sheesh. I guess that's the way to successfully appeal to a small-minded junior college president like W, but it's still painfully inaccurate.
Right, the Sons of Iraq or the Awakening movements or whatever, those would be the things to talk about, not the silly surge.
The Decision to invade Iraq could still be pivotal though. For example, what if things end up pretty cool there when we leave?
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