PRESIDENT BUSH DEPARTS, HIS TENURE NOT WASTED

George Bush leaves office this week after 1,463 days as our nation's leader. His tenure as chief executive was marked by soaring highs and deep lows, by landmark successes and puzzling failures. How will history remember George Bush? We hope it is as a good if fallible president who was a credit to his nation and who handled adeptly the primary function of that high office: he protected our nation and its interests when global events threatened them.

If nothing else can be said about the Bush presidency, it remains clear he enjoyed and excelled on the world stage. Few American presidents (though his predecessor was one) have commanded the respect of global leaders and international populations like George Bush. His formation and nurturing of a coalition to stand up to the aggression of Iraq's Saddam Hussein will stand as masterpieces of diplomacy and enterprise. Seldom have so many diverse agendas been brought under one tent, made cohesive and molded into an endeavor capable of expelling a tyrant and his occupying army. George Bush may never be given credit for breathing life into a sluggish and unaimed United Nations, under whose auspices the coalition served.

President Bush also was overseer of the Cold War's dying days, a demise set in motion by his former boss, Ronald Reagan, but one that could have been delayed by ineffectual stewardship by an American leader. The president moved on from the fall of the Berlin Wall to construct positive relationships with Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, culminating with his signing of the START II treaty with the Russians earlier this month. It was no idle recollection when President Bush said in December that his foreign policy efforts sought "to erase nuclear nightmares from the sleep of future generations." His work in that regard will be evident for generations to come.

Probably the last American president to have fought in World War II, President Bush revitalized America's image as a nation that took the steps necessary to address international issues. When Manuel Noriega suspended the democratic process in Panama in 1989, putting the security of the Panama Canal at risk, President Bush ordered an invasion of that nation and the arrest of its dictator. When millions were in jeopardy of starving in Somalia because relief shipments were being intercepted by warlords, President Bush put America on the forefront of a United Nations effort to protect the supplies and feed the hungry.

One can truthfully say President Bush was a better leader on global matters than domestic ones. And one can not discount the need for a strong president to resolve problems at home as well as abroad. In a broad perspective though, domestic concerns as they have been defined in recent years (a weakened economy, the health care dilemma, decaying infrastructure, and so on) don't amount to beans if the country is threatened internationally. These homefront problems are elevated to higher visibility by the mere fact the country is relatively secure from foreign threats; in truth, many of these problems can correct themselves without presidential attention ... though no alien attack can be repelled without the chief executive involved. Given that context and the job performance of President Bush, one can at least commend him for keeping the priorities of his office straight.

The United States carries out this week a gracious exercise of government, the transfer of power from one leader to the next. George Bush will take his leave of the White House, sooner than he wanted but with assurance that his occupancy of the Oval Office was not a wasted one. His career as a public servant has been an admirable one, and his departure from public life should be accompanied by our appreciation.