No lamenting song of goodbyes

He will not be sorely missed.

Yes, he will be remembered much, but he will not be remembered fondly. Unlike scenes in those old television series, people won't break into cheers and racuous songs, "For he is a jolly-good fellow, which nobody can deny..."Some people were incredulous upon hearing his father declare that he would leave today's most powerful office in the world and return home with his "head held high" for "having run a clear operation".

Head held high? May be more than one person had a flash of thought in their minds that went along the line of an American folk song, "Hang down your head...hang down your head and cry..."

Others' loving tears are not for him because he does not deserve tearful goodbyes. Those who may deserve to be cried upon include the families of at least 4,227 members of the United States military who had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003.

Those who may deserve the tearful goodbyes are those soldiers from his country's allies, fallen for the sake of a war that had done nothing but wrought havoc and earned him temporary boosts in some polls, a war that wound down just as his term came to a close leaving thousands, if not millions of people, wonder: "How did this happen, and for what?" Those who may deserve loving laments are included among the hundreds of soldiers from Britain, Italy, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, Spain, Denmark....Those who surely deserve the tearful goodbyes are victims of his policies in Afghanistan, in Guantanamo Bay, in Palestine and many other places of destruction. Among those must be wept upon are the more than 1,300 Palestinians killed in the 22 days of his country's closest ally Israel's onslaught in Gaza brutal attacks that are, if not initiated by him, then supported and condoned by him.

Those who certainly deserve loving goodbyes include 22-year-old Bisan, 15-year-old Mayer, 14-year old Aya and 14-year-old Nour Abu al-Aisy who were killed by an Israeli shell. They were the daughters and a niece of Izzuddin Abu al-Aisy, a Palestinian doctor who worked for 21 days almost without stopping, who provided Israeli TV viewers with regular updates on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, only to find his own to be among the human toll on the 22nd day of Israel's aggression.

"I want to know why my daughters were harmed," said Abu al-Aisy.

Yes, we all want to know why the daughters and the sons and the mothers and the fathers of Gaza and Iraq and Afghanistan and America and many other places were harmed and killed. And for what?

His father thinks he has been unfairly blamed for all things that went wrong in his country. "The idea that everything that's a problem in this country should be put on his shoulders, I don't think that's fair," the father said.

Well now, take a look at each and every bullet and missile and bomb that have been rained down on people who sometimes did not even know why they were brutalised, and see if they bore traces that linked them to his country. Besides, has he ever heard of this expression, "The buck stops here?"

Isn't that what people in his position should be doing anyway: shoulder the responsibility? His was the power that detonated bombs and missiles, his should be the hands that bear the blame for all the blood that has flowed.

Some people will remember him for his propensity to slap the label "evil" on some parties that he disliked. In his farewell speech, he said, "But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise."

Indeed. Surely this calls for a moment, or more, of reflection on the part of George W Bush: which side is he on throughout all these eight long, drawn years that many people are now feeling good to see the back of him?