The Pendragon's Hall

Wherever he is now, Harry Truman must be thanking his Maker he was born to a different time than George Bush. As nasty as the media was to Truman at times, it was child's play compared to what Bush must deal with. The media continues to toss around the question, "What did he know and when did he know it?" about the Iraqi War of Liberation. Truman would have been skewered alive. Following his decision to drop the bomb on Japan, Truman was blamed for, of all things, not paying attention to intelligence. In retrospect, the war might have been won without it. I'm sure I wish it had been. But the question, for Bush as for Truman, is not, "What do we know post factum?" but "What did we know beforehand?" The intelligence Truman had before dropping the bomb certainly made it seem like it was the best alternative. Bush must be exonerated in the same way. Whether or not, intelligence bears out afterwards, a commander-in-chief can only be praised or blamed on the basis of what he did with what he had. Both Bush and Truman are to be commended, not condemned, for their decisive action.