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Mar 15, 2004 I´ve noticed my column ´Kerry vs. Bush: David vs. Goliath´ has been the reason for some people to tell me what´s wrong with my statements I made in it. That´s okay. Now I wish to give my reaction on some of their critics in return. To start with: when one does write a column, he´s allowed to exaggerate, to make things ridiculous. As long as he stays with the facts. I´ve done so gentlemen, as far as my knowledge of American politics goes. No, I´m not aware of all John Kerry´s actions as a Senator. I have to rely on what I read in Dutch quality newspapers and see on CNN to get an idea of what kind of man he is or could be. I´m not anti American, not even anti Bush in all ways. I was just as shocked after 9/11 as everybody was. Hey, I´ve got a good friend who´s American. Her shock was also my shock. I do believe Americans have much reasons to be proud of their country. But let´s keep on looking at things in perspective. The world has not become safer since Bush´s war on terrorism. To the contrary. The awful attacks in Madrid of 3/11 are the most recent proof. Bush had to do something, sure. But his wars only produced (and will produce, unfortunately) more counter reactions. There must be smarter ways to fight terrorism than George Bush has been doing the past four years. I´m not saying we Europeans know everything better than you Americans or vice versa. Politics is a matter of judging important decisions, whether American leaders, European leaders or whatever country they come from are involved. When we want the world to get better, our leaders have to co-operate, have to show they can take those decisions together and must not be quarreling or acting on their own. When it came to the question whether Iraq had to be attacked or not, one of the arguments of many people (politicians and common people) was you can´t decide on your own to attack a country just because you think it may become dangerous one day. We´re almost one year further in time. Where are Saddam´s weapons of mass destruction gentlemen??? Of course, Saddam was a big crook who had killed ten thousands of his own people, but I can think of many other dictators (today and in the past) who were just like Saddam and to whom neither the USA nor Europe did anything. Bush´s defence for attacking Saddam stank from the very first beginning. To end: the finances. As long as there are millions of people living in the USA who don´t even have a proper health insurance while others are spending millions of dollars on television commercials to get themselves re-elected something is very wrong with that society in my opinion. And the deficits of the USA are bigger. Because of the wars and because of a large tax deduction. Who profited most of the latter? Not the poor people, I´m certain of that. The USA are a great country. You have done many good things and we Europeans owe you a lot. But the current political direction of the past four years has made many people around the whole world concerned. That´s something to think about. For George Bush and John Kerry! ------------ Email Johan Peters: johan.peters@johanpeters.net Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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