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Sept. 11, 2004 George W. Bush is in a very real sense the leader of the world, and touches the lives of people everywhere, not just in the USA. Those of us with access to TV and modern media can only watch and wonder. It is not so much that he is not particularly Presidential, that he is linguistically challenged and unable to project the image of a intellectual statesman. Perhaps that is what the American public want. The problem is more in the things that he and his friends have done to damage America and her standing in the world. Let me list a few things, none of them new but any one of which make America's friends shudder: He took America to war on a false premise - by mistake(?) - but shows no remorse or sense of responsibility for the error. He imprisoned enemy combatants in a law-free zone, where he can decide their fate without interference from the judiciary. The law takes second place to his exercise of arbitrary power. He has prevented the American public seeing news footage of their own soldiers returning dead. The one moment that could possibly give meaning to their deaths, when we can honour their sacrifice, has been taken away for political convenience. Shame on him! He as tried to hide his own self-serving evasion of Vietnam duty, while flinging mud and slurs at Kerry's service (however successful that was, at least it was real). On his watch, we have found out that the USA has behaved every bit as badly towards Arab prisoners as the propagandists used to tell us. And interrogation techniques that are clearly torture have been legally approved (and who knows about those dark nights in the cells when unapproved techniques might be applied?) Again, no shame, no taking of responsibility. Just a few things above, all very dangerous to America's future. Enough to tell Americans that they have a real problem, and we have not even got into the lies and obfuscations over the well- being of the people and the economy. Are these things enough to stop him being re- elected? I don't know. After all, Nixon was re- elected AFTER Watergate had become common knowledge.... ------------ About the author: Eric lives in tropical Queensland and writes books - some naughty, some nice - that can be found through Renaissance eBooks (renebooks.com) He reads widely and when he is not thinking about lunch, worries about the state of the world. Email: ericge@westnet.com.au Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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