George W. Bush has not resolved a single problem during his eight years as president.

Unfortunately for the nation, George W. Bush has created many problems that will be left to Obama and other future leaders to resolve.

Dubya is certainly living up his status of lame duck. Has he done anything substantive in the last who knows how many months excluding the auto bailout?

Bush's lack of understanding of the root causes of the problems of the middle east makes his lying low not a bad thing. He should fade away. Occupation in the territories is the real problem.

So Obama won't make a statement because "there is only one President at a time", while the man who IS still President says nothing while his Israeli allies commit war crimes against the Palestinians.

Sadly Bush--himself a war criminal--lacks the credibility and moral courage to make a humanitarian stand--even as the last act of his treasonous presidency.

In 1917 after the defeat of the Ottoman empire by Britain and France. 78% of Palestine was Muslim. 11% were Christian and only 11% were Jews. The Muslims had ruled that land for 500 years.

In the 1890???s Herzl proposed a ???homeland??? for the Jews. The movement was called Zionism. Jews were scattered around the world. The concept of developing a Jewish State ???for the Jews??? to bring them together was commendable. Except, if you want to create such a State, you have to take the land from somebody else!

In WW1, during the fighting in that area (Palestine), Britain promised control to the Arabs for their support in defeating the Turks. (Remember Lawrence of Arabia?) However, at the end of the war, Jewish lobbyists (Weisman and Balfour) convinced the British to declare Palestine a ???Homeland for the Jews???. This of course did not sit well with the Arabs.

Then, in Palestine, with the Jewish methods of takeover, similar to the way we in the US took over from the American Indians, resentment exploded. It has then spread to the whole of the he Mideast and can be argued to be the main cause of the situation there today.

The resentment lead to terrorism as a Palestinian defense because apparently, the Palestinians along with the rest of the Muslim world, have no will or capability to organize politically or otherwise to influence the Palestinian situation from a broader perspective.

On top of that , we the US, have never been perceived as treating the parties fairly. Why we sided with the Jews is a puzzle because from the beginning our interest have been oil and had we played the game more fairly we may not be having all the problems (global terrorism) we have today.

What a pity!

It appears that Bush and his "arm chair dabblers" have set the atage for the main event.

Israel citizens living in illegal settlements.

1966 0
1972 10,608
1983 106,595
1993 281,800
2004 441,165
2006 484,562

I encourage everyone to go to wilkipedia and look at the settlement locations. It is no wonder why the Palestinians have lost hope and resorted to violence.

Obama won't do any better than Bush. In fact he is looking and sounding more like him everyday.

Our Greatest, Smartest Leader also froze since GWB cares no more, knowing little what to do about international conflicts. A gentle way of describing his status is that Pres.-Ele. B. 0bama (Pebo) is closely monitoring the situation.

What the heck do you need to monitor anyway? More than 300 people have been killed. Is he waiting for another 300 before he airs anything?

the man has what, less than 4 weeks left on the job, and he needs a vacation? there's his 'legacy' in a nutshell...

It is nice to see Bush on vacation and congress giving themselves a pay raise. Nice job everyone.....not!

jamin: "A gentle way of describing his status is that Pres.-Ele. B. 0bama (Pebo) is closely monitoring the situation."

As a senator, Obama does not have access to the Executive branch briefings and resources to even properly monitor the situation, never mind implement any policy. Obama can't even get permission to move into the president elect's housing a couple weeks early. You are profoundly ignorant if you think Obama could do anything more than hold a press conference - a foolish move since it would undercut the American government and be done without full knowledge (8 minute call not withstanding).

Hamas and Israel! A problem for the ages, not to be solved certainly by W, and of course left to PEBO. I just don't want to hear from anyone the question of "proportionality" re the Israeli response to the Hamas attacks. If China or Pakistan or France or anyone were to lob missiles into your (New York, Ohio, Hawaii, Florida, Nevada, California....wherever) neighborhood: what would you consider a "proportional response" to be?

Like I said. Hurray up Jan 20th so Obama and team can show us what they are going to do and stoop deffering to a president who is dertermined to sit out making decisions for the next few weeks.

No doubt Mr. Bush is polishing his "legacy".

Don't worry, Mr. President, your legacy is written in stone.

"Principle VI

The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:

(a) Crimes against peace:
(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).

(b) War crimes:
Violations of the laws or customs of war include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave-labour or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war, of persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity."

This entire situation is extremely sad. Especially seeing the pictures of innocent children with blood streaming down their faces. As always seems the case in the Middle East, both sides share the blame. Hamas had to have known what the result would be when they began launching missiles into Israel. To say that Israel is engaging in war crimes by responding is a bit disingenuous. If Mexico or Canada began launching missiles into the U.S. the response would be the same. Israel has a right to defend itself. On the other hand the retaliation is leaving hundreds of innocent Palestinian women and children dead and injured and that indicates that Israel is being reckless in the manner of its response. Both sides have once again contributed to this disaster.

As always, GW is as useless as teats on a boar hog.

Can anyone out there explain to me why Bush and his staff are being paid for?

It is hard to believe people just get their salaries for doing nothing! The nation is in trouble for the remaining 5 weeks until Jan 20th. That day can't come sooner!

It's a good thing he's on the job, huh?