Gary Kohls
BUSH SHOE-IN: What's wrong with this picture?
Mon Feb 9 03:15:56 2004
64.140.158.184

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: George W. Bush, international pariah, is curiously regarded as a shoe-in for President? What's wrong with this picture?
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 22:20:00 -0600
From: Gary Kohls gkohls@cpinternet.com

PeaceFriends, Please read this piece below my comments and pass it on widely. (note that I am sending on this important piece rather indiscriminately, so if you are not a regular recipient of my offerings and are offended - or wished that I hadn't sent you these unwelcome truths, you don't have to complain to me; you won't be getting (m)any more - at least not very soon!!)

The thinking electorate (I fervently hope that there are some in the Southern states) must consider these sad and sobering facts below about Bush's pariah status outside our borders before deciding reflexly to vote the incumbent back into office. I imagine that just about every neofascist, corporatist, racist and militarist in Amerika likes the Bush platform and his death-dealing accomplishments so far (but we'd better understand whose presidential agenda, Bush's or the Democrats, resonates most deeply with the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation, the White Citizens Councils, the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, Wall Street, every well-financed conservative think tank in DC, the CIA'a Black Arts assassination squads, the remnants of the lynch squads of the south, the Pentagon, and the list goes on and on.

If that's not enough, can we really stand the embarrassment of installing a second time a corrupt and inept president who claimed 1) that he heard God tell him to first smite Osama (and the innocent Afghanis) and then Saddam (and the innocent Iraqis) and that God is now telling him to work on the Middle East problem? (doesn't that meet the definition for delusional thinking?); 2) that he is a Christian but obviously has not a clue of what Jesus actually taught about the issue of homicidal violence and Jesus he said about greedy, pro-violent, merciless, enemy-hating and compassionless rich people and their chances (nil) of entering the kingdom of God? (are Bush and company looking for tiny camels and big sewing needles somewhere in Israel?); 3) that the world is only 6000 years old, believes the Noad and the Ark myth and that the earth was literally totally covered by water back then and that the earth will soon be destroyed in an orchestrated nuclear holocaust which is being actively and "faithfully" hoped for by Bush's cunning Christian Fundamentalist cronies (who are swarming all over the White House and Dept of (IN)Justice) and who are fanatical supporters of Ariel Sharon's cruel neofascist regime that is hoped will lead to the "Rapture" for themselves and the "Tribulation" for us heathens. Read on and weep. And then organize thoroughly and energetically against this religiously-endorsed insanity before it's too late. Gary.
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In three years, George W. Bush has managed to alienate most of the world. What will he do next?

By Mick Youther

The U.S. has a serious problem with international relations. It is called the Bush Administration. Admittedly, it is hard to live up to the Jeffersonian ideal of “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations,” but the Bush Administration can’t seem to get along with anyone—even our allies.

• “For Germany's centrist Sud-Deutsche Zeitung he is ‘Bully Bush.’ For Britain's center-left The Guardian, heralds ‘the return of The Ugly American.’ For Italy's La Repubblica, he is ‘the executioner- in-chief.’ For France's Le Figaro, he is ‘the toxic Texan.’…the Financial Times sniffs '[Mr. Bush's foreign policy] has managed to strike a combination of alarm and antipathy into just about everybody who matters.'”-- United Press International, 6/11/01

• “Across British public opinion, George Bush is seen as the global village idiot…he is Ronald Reagan without the brains.”-- Andrew Rawnsley The Observer, 1/16/03

• “There is something almost comical about the prospect of George W. Bush waging war on another nation because that nation has defied international law. Since Bush came to office, the U.S. government has torn up more international treaties and disregarded more United Nations’ conventions than the rest of the world has in 20 years.”-- George Monbiot, The Guardian, 8/6/02

• “A lot of people had sympathy for Americans around the time of 9/11, but that's changed. They act like the big guy riding roughshod over everyone else."-- Cathy Hearn, 31, a flight attendant from South Africa, NY Times, 9/11/03

• “Under Bush, America has rapidly projected an attitude that causes even its closest allies and friends to shake their heads. Their egotism has prevented U.S. leaders from grasping the true scale of the anti-American emotion now spreading around the world.”-- Kaname Saruya, Professor emeritus, Tokyo Women's Christian University, 12/26/03

• “On his tour of China, Japan and South Korea, the American president left a trail of bruised egos with his patronising remarks and display of muscle.”-- The Times of India, 3/3/02

• “President George Bush is seen around the world as the most arrogant, bullying US president ever. Humility has been replaced by a strutting arrogance perfectly personified by Bush's 'John Wayne walk' and his "my way or the highway" proclamations.”-- John LeBoutillier, NewsMax.com, 3/10/03

• “In largely friendly Britain, a poll by the Times of London found that respondents were split evenly over who posed the greater danger to world peace, Bush or Hussein.”-- Doyle McManus, LA Times, 3/3/03

• ”Bush is aggressive when he need not be. Power is completely corrupted in his hands. It's painful to watch.... Bush talks about Saddam's violation of human rights but American economic sanctions are the worst form of human rights violation.”-- B. Hariharan, Mysore University; quoted in the Toronto Star, 1/23/03

• “…for every one of his Latin American appointments so far, Bush has picked leftovers from the Reagan State Department: architects of one of the bloodiest and cruelest periods of U.S. policy toward Central America.... Instead of healing old wounds, he has re-opened them…Bush’s Latin American team reads like a roster of ‘America’s Most Disgraced Diplomats.’”-- Bill Press, Tribune Media Services, 9/7/01

• “I think a lot of people see a greedy bully—someone who is prepared to run roughshod over other people's interests.”-- Vuyo Mvoko, a journalist with SABC television in South Africa, 1/11/04

• “Do we really want a man like him making snap decisions on whether to drop bombs or go to war? Do we really like the idea of his finger on the big trigger?… [Bush, it continued] is a thoroughly dangerous, unpleasant piece of work who shouldn't be let anywhere near the White House."-- The Mirror, a British tabloid, quoted by The Washington Post, 1/7/01

• “For US citizens living overseas, President George W Bush's unilateral ultimatum to Iraq makes us all ugly Americans... Our flag, which stood for the hopes of humankind now stands for disdain for diplomacy in favor of military intimidation.”--Gary LaMoshi, Asia Times, 3/20/03

The President of the United States is our representative. He is the face we present to the world. He is our voice. In this capacity, George W. Bush has failed us miserably. His simple-minded “You're either with us or against us. You're either evil, or you're good.” proclamation and his eagerness to use military force has set us at odds with our friends and multiplied our enemies.

A year from now we can have a new President making his inaugural address. It will mark the end of four years of irresponsibility, and we can start back in the right direction again. The whole world will breathe a sigh of relief.

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2004


Mick Youther is an Instructor in the Department of Physiology at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL. You can email your comments to Mick@interventionmag.com

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