Originally Posted by SoundgardenRocks

Yeah, that's the thing - it's impossible to know if we play with hypotheticals. If Trump was president in 2001 after 9/11, would he have made the same decisions as GW Bush? Maybe, maybe not. A lot of variables. The hypothetical might be different if 9/11 happened in our current time.

Trump does this act where he brags himself up, talks about how intelligent he is and all that ****. I'm no psychologist, but it might be because he's insecure about his knowledge and capabilities as President- in other words, he knows privately that he's in over his head and doesn't have the experience to take in the information and make decisions accordingly.

GW Bush, on the other hand, had this act where he'd portray himself as this goofy uncle/grampa sort of character. He'd say **** so dumb that with any other regular person, you'd be confident that said regular person was just a dumb ass. I don't buy Bush's act, I think he was more aware of what he was doing than is often portrayed. I think Cheney was obviously a negative influence, but I don't think Bush had no idea of the possible consequences of his actions and I don't think Cheney was the one pulling the strings. In his speeches before he was president, he was a lot more articulate. I think Bush did this act to make himself more endearing and to make people more forgiving of him when his legacy is assessed, because after all, he was just a bumbling buffoon right?

I don't buy the act, and I think Bush was just a straight up evil mother****er. Trump has his faults, and he has many, but he hasn't started a war that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) yet.