Ours was the nation that won World War II and rebuilt Europe. So energetic, so inspired, so determined were we that the whole century was named after us.

Today our Army would have trouble defending Florida from Cuba. Not only have we failed to rebuild New Orleans; we can't even adequately rebuild its levees. And the current century will apparently belong to one of our most dangerous adversaries from the last one.

Yes, the American Century is over. But not because the 20th Century ended. Because the Bush presidency began.

This was no coincidence of timing, or inevitable epochal shift. It's the direct consequence of leadership so breathtakingly poor, from a man so painfully limited, that the richest, most powerful nation in history is now destined for bankruptcy, thrashing helplessly in a Mideast tar pit.

Unfortunately for the United States, the "uniter" who promised to "restore honesty and integrity to the Oval Office" quickly became the divider who lied us into a war and then kept on lying -- to avoid accountability for:

9/11 and the aftermath of Katrina;

The repeated placement of unqualified cronies, party activists, and Big Business insiders in important positions;

The even more-often-repeated circumvention of Congress, established law, and Constitutional protections;

The continuing effort to link 9/11 to Saddam Hussein, and opposition to the Iraq war to cowardice and lack of patriotism.

Brownie did a ... wait for it ... heck of a job. Alberto Gonzales, who doesn't know who's staying and who's going in his own department (or does, and is brazenly lying about it) answered Congressional questions -- hold for the applause sign -- "as honestly as he could." (Like Paul Wolfowitz, architect of the failed Iraq strategy and his girlfriend's recent career path, the Attorney General has Bush's "full confidence.")

It would all be laughable. If we lived in China.

Much is made in the media of Bush's supposed "loyalty." It explains, we are asked to believe, why he refuses to can appointees until the damage caused by their incompetence is irreversible. Such loyalty to pals is not new in our politics; crises come because a mediocre intellect is most likely to make pals with other mediocrities.

But the real problem is not Bush's loyalty; it's his (well-deserved) insecurity. Confident, competent leaders can admit mistakes, and will pay attention to differing views. But any admission by Bush that he made a poor decision would, in his mind, make real his worst fear -- that his startling inadequacy will become plain to the entire country, instead of just two-thirds of us.

That remaining, willfully blind, blame-Clinton-for-everything one-third likes to point out that al Qaeda hasn't attacked us once since 9/11, disregarding the fact that it was eight years between the first terrorist attack on U.S. soil and the second. Shall we praise Bush for six attack-free (albeit fear-filled) years? Maybe. Or we could credit the Department of Homeland Security -- the creation of which Bush adamantly opposed.

Those who intentionally tune into Fox News also say that Clinton weakened our military, disregarding the almost daily assertions by respected former and current military men that our Army, Marines, and Reserves are nearly, to use their word, broken.

Like Bush himself, the sad one-third is too angry, hateful, and insecure to admit the mistake America made in 2000 and 2004.

But then, maybe I'm the one wearing blinders when I beg for someone, anyone, to name something positive Bush has done since taking office. Am I ignoring today's relatively healthy (it only took five years) economy, possibly the result of Bush's tax cuts? Maybe, but those tax cuts have deepened the fiscal chasm our kids and grandkids will have to dig out of; in any case, I'll credit Bush when the one-third credits Clinton for America's longest sustained economic boom -- and a huge, quickly squandered budget surplus.

In the meantime, the French are launching a 350-mile-an-hour passenger train that doesn't burn fossil fuel; the best we can do is maybe not argue about Amtrak subsidies every couple of years.

In the meantime, Toyota surpassed General Motors in worldwide sales last quarter -- the first time that's ever happened.

In the meantime, every other industrialized nation guarantees health care to its citizens; we have 45 million uninsured and the world's highest prescription prices because the administration doesn't want to perturb its insurance and pharmaceutical contributors.

In the meantime, dozens of American states and cities are taking it upon themselves to fight global warming because the administration doesn't want to perturb its energy industry contributors. And we're as dependent on Arab oil as ever, despite Bush's lip service and empty State-of-the-Union promises.

(Which reminds me: Whatever happened to that manned mission to Mars? I'm not sensing any moon-landing urgency.)

The sad fact is that George W. Bush had prime opportunities to become what he fancied himself -- our inspiring "decider." But he couldn't even muster the inspiration and imagination to involve the American people, through noble shared sacrifice, in his war on terrorism -- as easy as that would have been. The best he could do after the worst terrorism attack in history was suggest a trip to Disney World. (Maybe he was capable of more Churchillian leadership but preferred to prove his manhood in Iraq rather than finish the job in Afghanistan.)

So, once again, I defy anyone to name anything George W. Bush has accomplished as president that can't be attributed to luck, the cyclical nature of economies, or the patience of Osama bin Laden.

In 1974, British author Renee Winegarten wrote, "An epoch or a civilization cannot be prevented from breathing its last. A natural process that happens to all flesh and all human manifestations cannot be arrested. You can only wring your hands and utter a beautiful swan song."

Maybe she was right. (I know my hands are cramped after six and a half years.) Maybe the worst president in modern times has only hastened America's inevitable decline, just as venal and incompetent emperors hastened Rome's.

But it would've been nice if, before we blithely passed the baton to China, we'd have uttered something other than "Send in the Clowns."