George W. Bush
George W. Bush was president of the United States from 2001 to 2009, and his two terms were defined by the attacks of 11 September and the invasion of Iraq. Born in New Haven in 1946, the eldest son of George H. W. Bush, he was educated at Andover, Yale and Harvard Business School, served in the Texas Air National Guard, and worked in the oil business without much success. He gave up drinking at forty and became an evangelical Christian. He was part-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team and was elected governor of Texas in 1994, where he worked effectively with a Democratic legislature. The 2000 election was decided by 537 votes in Florida after the Supreme Court halted a recount; he lost the popular vote. Eight months later, hijacked aircraft killed 2,977 people. His approval reached ninety per cent, and he invaded Afghanistan to remove the Taliban and pursue al-Qaeda. In March 2003 he invaded Iraq on the stated grounds that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and had links to al-Qaeda. Neither was true. The occupation was inadequately planned, the Iraqi army was disbanded, an insurgency and sectarian war followed, and hundreds of thousands died. His administration authorised waterboarding and other methods widely regarded as torture, held detainees indefinitely at Guantánamo, and conducted warrantless surveillance. Domestically he cut taxes twice, expanded Medicare to cover prescription drugs, passed No Child Left Behind, and committed some fifteen billion dollars to AIDS relief in Africa through PEPFAR, which is credited with saving millions of lives. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the financial crisis of 2008 ended his standing.
- Lived: 1946 CE – ?
- Nationality: American
- Roles: 43rd President of the United States (2001-2009)
