High time to reassess Bush

How does the Bush administration stack up after 18 months? Poorly if you ask me, and it's high time that we conquer our natural reluctance to criticize the president and speak up, like true patriots, when we see our country being led astray.

On Sept. 10, 2001, the Bush administration was in serious difficulty on almost every front:

— The economy was in the doldrums; the Bush remedy — tax cuts for the rich and rebates for the rest of us — failed to excite the populace, or stimulate the economy.

— His proposed new energy policy, based on advice from the petroleum industry and Enron officials, focused on expanding resource development, including drilling on national park lands and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, was foundering on resistance from environmental interests and the public at large.

— European allies were offended by patent disinterest in international cooperation; dues to the United Nations remained unpaid; determination to relaunch star wars and abrogate the test-ban and antiballistic missile treaties, to abandon the Kyoto protocol on global warming and sabotage the proposed international criminal court, alienated friends around the world.

Then came the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Overnight, the United States received overwhelming sympathy and support from the international community; Americans of every political persuasion rallied around the president, applauding his declaration of war on terrorists. Congressional support of presidential initiatives was bipartisan and nearly unanimous. The terrorist attack of Sept. 11 was a terrible tragedy for the nation and the world; but for George Bush, it was a gift from Allah.

Wrapping his programs in the red, white and blue of patriotism, Bush stifled critics by suggestions of disloyalty or worse. The leader of our Department of Justice, Attorney General John Ashcroft, averred that dissent was akin to treason.