So how will history judge President Bush.  The Left will write the history, so the answer is “not well.”  Iraq will be figured prominently, as indeed it should.  But the positive and negative aspects of Iraq deserve attention, although the former will not receive their due.  The calculus will be Bush=Iraq, unless Iraq is a stable, good ally.

Conservatives should be upset with the Bush presidency.  For most of it, Republicans held the Hill.  Yet, no progress was made stemming the tide of illegal immigration, eliminating affirmative action, or any of the other measures that would please the Republican base.  Just the reverse, Republicans in power govern like moderate Democrats on domestic and social issues.

After 9/11, Bush had a chance to make progress in domestic policy.   For example, to illustrate the absurdity and perniciousness of multiculturalism and to restore sanity on immigration policy.  His great failing as a president was that he did not act when he had the opportunity.

The time is now to change the Republican leadership and restore conservative principles to the Party.

What was the Bush presidency?  A very good one in foreign and defense policy.  Leaving the ABM Treaty was a positive step.  One that allows America to be partially protected from ballistic missiles.  That work continues in Europe, with the construction of the European site for missile defense in the Czech Republic and Poland.  The list continues:  Forging the 9/11 coalition of states; de-escalating the tension between India and Pakistan; expanding NATO; forcing Libya to surrender its WMD and rolling up the A.Q. Khan network; calling attention to North Korea’s uranium enrichment facilities (started under Clinton); and readily assisting after natural disasters.

On domestic policy:  He was a failure–marked by lost opportunities to make progress.

What was the Bush presidency?  A Bush presidency.  You knew how he would govern in 2000.

Let us hope that he is not the last Republican president.

The fact is Pakistan is an ally of a kind.  Islamabad is helpful to some degree in prosecuting the war on terror, and this is recognized by Washington.  Recently, the Pentagon announced that Pakistani F-16 pilots would train with U.S. pilots in night attack missions to aid Pakistan’s counterinsurgency ability.  The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Mullen, is making his fifth visit to Pakistan since he assumed office in October.  The number visits is a mark of Pakistan’s importance.  At the same time, we know that Pakistan only reluctantly helps the U.S. in the tribal areas in northwest Pakistan, where Usama bin Laden (& Co.) probably is.

U.S. relations with Pakistan are seriously mixed.  As a nuclear country it compels U.S. attention and certain resources.  Of course, the fact that Pakistan undermined U.S. security and counterproliferation efforts by sponsoring the A.Q. Khan nuclear network means that there are certain limits beyond which the relationship cannot go.  The future of the relationship will be much worse.  The Cold War is over, and with it went the high point in relations with Pakistan.  Washington will work hard to keep Pakistan together but ever greater cleavages will separate the countries.