stock, and accounting firms had been creative in
passing accounts. Arthur Anderson, one of the
most respected, went bust as a consequence.
Something had to be done to restore the battered
image of capitalism gone wild. Congress tightened
the rules, a good start. Fundamentally the US
economy is the strongest in the globe. The adjust-
ments in the new millennium have been painful.
Bush followed traditional Republican policies
and those of the conservative coalition that backed
him in some areas opposing gay marriages, abor-
tion and stem cell research. Deregulation reflected
Republican views on the need for small govern-
ment. As the Clinton years drew to a close, the
economy was in a fragile state and Bush was not
responsible for the bursting bubble of technology.
He countered with large tax reductions. New jobs
were created although not enough to mop up all
those unemployed by the changing pattern of the
economy. But traditional Republican policies
were not the whole story. Bush wanted to exhibit
a ‘caring conservatism’. Medicare for the elderly
was increased; in the wake of 9/11 the intelli-
gence services were reorganised into an enlarged
‘Homelands Security’ apparatus; Bush’s first term
was particularly noteworthy for giving federal sup-
port to education. The ‘No Child Left Behind
Act’ introduced national testing and standards,
the federal budget for schools was greatly
expanded. Inevitably, the deficit has ballooned not
least because of the increased burdens of military
operations and reconstruction in Iraq.
President George W. Bush earned high
approval ratings and in the November 2002 mid-
term congressional elections the Republicans
gained control both of the House and the Senate.
Americans trusted Bush’s leadership after the cat-
aclysmic terror attack on 11 September 2001.
When George W. Bush entered the White
House there had been still room for discussion
and debate about timing and priorities. There was
a sense that a firmer policy abroad was required
than Clinton had followed. The appointments
of Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defence, and
Paul Wolwowitz, old hands of his father’s team,
shows that Bush was in sympathy with their views.
Colin Powell, the general who had been in charge
of the first Gulf War was the new secretary of state,
Dick Cheney was the vice-president. Rumsfeld
and Cheney during the Clinton administration
had already reached their own conclusions where
the new danger lay – the nexus between ‘rogue
states’, weapons of mass destruction and terrorists.
Bush too in his autobiography published in 1999
wrote that the US faced a dangerous ‘world of ter-
ror and missiles and madmen’, warning that,
‘Peace is not ordained, it is earned’. Bush went on
to identify two countries, ‘that hate our values and
resent our success’ – North Korea and Iraq. The
listing was not exclusive, however, as Bush
promised to deal firmly with ‘regimes like that’.
Before the elections the presidential candidate did
not use the word ‘war’, but he probably already
recognised that the ultimate resort to force could
not be ruled out as Clinton had done. This pas-
sage in his autobiography is not so very different
from the dangers he encapsulated in the ‘axis of928 GLOBAL CHANGE: FROM THE 20th TO THE 21st CENTURY
New York, World Trade Center, September 11, 2001.
A new front in the bloody conflict of terror. ©
Reuters/Corbis