Somehow, I don't think this diary is going to be very popular. But give me a chance before hide rating it or whatever.
Let me start off by saying that I believe Bush should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and would, I believe, get a life sentence if all his crimes were added up and judged fairly.
Update: I guess what I am trying to say here is, try to separate the person from the crimes of his administration. Of course HE was responsible, but he also got a LOT of extremely bad advice. And he needed advice, since he was never very clever.
Update 2: perhaps I should also add that I never expected to feel sorry for him. I was devastated when he won reelection, and could not wait for his impeachment or, failing that, the end of his term. But now that I know that apparently he cannot wait for this either, it got me thinking. Nevertheless, like I am trying to say below, nothing can justify or excuse what he did and what he enabled.
But ever since I heard that he was looking forward to the end of his term (can't find the source now) I suddenly started to feel sorry for him.
It is easy to say that he is evil, a master criminal, somebody who does not only not follow the constitution but actively undermines it at every step of the way.
Nevertheless, I believe that there are factors that should be taken into account. I do not believe that he planned all this back in 2000. To a large extent, he may have been overtaken by events and also followed a lot of bad advice, particularly by Dick Cheney (the shadow president), Gonzales, Yoo, and Addington.
Hard as this may be, I believe that we should try to also see things from his point of view. We must admit the possibility that he thought he was doing the right thing (although he really should have had doubts about many things, first and foremost authorizing torture, but he simply does not appear to be a deep thinker like the current president-elect -- I for one can't wait!).
But put yourself in his place right now. He knows that basically everything has gone wrong, the economy is in dire straights, the US will be kicked out of Iraq, and he has to worry about how many members of his administration he should pardon preemptively (which, I suppose, would form an ironic counterpoint to the idea of preemptive war). And there is nothing that he can do now to change any of this. All there is left for him to do is to wait until the last two months are up, and then wait to see if he will be prosecuted.
Again, he deserves everything that is coming to him, and I am not about to forgive him for his crimes or even to justify them in any way. What he did was fundamentally wrong on many levels. Nevertheless, I do feel sorry for him. Kill this diary if you must.