From the Daily Mirror UK
GOD HELP AMERICA
THEY say that in life you get what you deserve. Well, today America has
deservedly got a lawless cowboy to lead them further into carnage and isolation
and the unreserved contempt of most of the rest of the world.
This once-great country has pulled up its drawbridge for another four years and
stuck a finger up to the billions of us forced to share the same air. And in
doing so, it has shown itself to be a fearful, backward-looking and very small
nation.
This should have been the day when Americans finally answered their critics by
raising their eyes from their own sidewalks and looking outward towards the rest
of humanity.
And for a few hours early yesterday, when the exit polls predicted a John Kerry
victory, it seemed they had.
But then the horrible, inevitable truth hit home. They had somehow managed to
re-elect the most devious, blinkered and reckless leader ever put before them.
The Yellow Rogue of Texas.
A self-serving, dim-witted, draft-dodging, gung-ho little rich boy, whose idea
of courage is to yell: "I feel good," as he unleashes an awesome fury which
slaughters 100,000 innocents for no other reason than greed and vanity.
A dangerous chameleon, his charming exterior provides cover for a power-crazed
clique of Doctor Strangeloves whose goal is to increase America's grip on the
world's economies and natural resources.
And in foolishly backing him, Americans have given the go-ahead for more
unilateral pre-emptive strikes, more world instability and most probably another
9/11.
Why else do you think bin Laden was so happy to scare them to the polls, then
made no attempt to scupper the outcome?
There's only one headline in town today, folks: "It Was Osama Wot Won It."
And soon he'll expect pay-back. Well, he can't allow Bush to have his folks
whoopin' and a-hollerin' without his own getting a share of the fun, can he?
Heck, guys, I hope you're feeling proud today.
To the tens of millions who voted for John Kerry, my commiserations.
To the overwhelming majority of you who didn't, I simply ask: Have you learnt
nothing? Do you despise your own image that much?
Do you care so little about the world beyond your shores? How could you do this
to yourselves?
How appalling must one man's record at home and abroad be for you to reject him?
Kerry wasn't the best presidential candidate the Democrats have ever fielded
(and he did deserve a kicking for that "reporting for doo-dee" moment), but at
least he understood the complexity of the world outside America, and domestic
disgraces like the 45 million of his fellow citizens without health cover.
He would have done something to make that country fairer and re-connected it
with the wider world.
Instead America chose a man without morals or vision. An economic incompetent
who inherited a $2billion surplus from Clinton, gave it in tax cuts to the rich
and turned the US into the world's largest debtor nation.
A man who sneers at the rights of other nations. Who has withdrawn from
international treaties on the environment and chemical weapons.
A man who flattens sovereign states then hands the rebuilding contracts to his
own billionaire party backers.
A man who promotes trade protectionism and backs an Israeli government which
continually flouts UN resolutions.
America has chosen a menacingly immature buffoon who likened the pursuit of the
9/11 terrorists to a Wild West, Wanted Dead or Alive man-hunt and, during the
Afghanistan war, kept a baseball scorecard in his drawer, notching up hits when
news came through of enemy deaths.
A RADICAL Christian fanatic who decided the world was made up of the forces of
good and evil, who invented a war on terror, and thus as author of it, believed
he had the right to set the rules of engagement.
Which translates to telling his troops to do what the hell they want to the bad
guys. As he has at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and countless towns across Iraq.
You have to feel sorry for the millions of Yanks in the big cities like New
York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco who voted to
kick him out.
These are the sophisticated side of the electorate who recognise a gibbon when
they see one.
As for the ones who put him in, across the Bible Belt and the South, us
outsiders can only feel pity.
Were I a Kerry voter, though, I'd feel deep anger, not only at them returning
Bush to power, but for allowing the outside world to lump us all into the same
category of moronic muppets.
The self-righteous, gun-totin', military lovin', sister marryin',
abortion-hatin', gay-loathin', foreigner-despisin', non-passport ownin'
red-necks, who believe God gave America the biggest dick in the world so it
could urinate on the rest of us and make their land "free and strong".
You probably won't be surprised to learn of would-be Oklahoma Republican Senator
Tom Coburn who, on Tuesday, promised to ban abortion and execute any doctors who
carried them out.
He also told voters that lesbianism is so rampant in the state's schools that
girls were being sent to toilets on their own. Not that any principal could be
found to back him up.
These are the people who hijack the word patriot and liken compassion to
child-molesting. And they are unknowingly bin Laden's chief recruiting officers.
Al-Qaeda's existence is fuelled by the outpourings of America's Christian right.
Bush is its commander-in-chief. And he and bin Laden need each other to survive.
Both need to play Lex Luther to each others' Superman with their own fanatical
people. Maybe that's why the mightiest military machine ever assembled has
failed to catch the world's most wanted man.
Or is the reason simply that America is incompetent? That behind the bluff they
are frightened and clueless, which is why they've stayed with the devil they
know.
VISITORS from another planet watching this election would surely not credit the
amateurism.
The queues for hours to register a tick; the 17,000 lawyers needed to ensure
there was no cheating; the $1.2bn wasted by parties trying to discredit the
enemy; the allegations of fraud, intimidation and dirty tricks; the exit polls
which were so wildly inaccurate; an Electoral College voting system that makes
the Eurovision Song Contest look like a beacon of democracy and efficiency; and
the delays and the legal wrangles in announcing the victor.
Yet America would have us believe theirs is the finest democracy in the world.
Well, that fine democracy has got the man it deserved. George W Bush.
But is America safer today without Kerry in charge? A man who overnight would
have given back to the UN some credibility and authority. Who would have worked
out the best way to undo the Iraq mess without fear of losing face.
Instead, the questions facing America today are - how many more thousands of
their sons will die as Iraq descends into a new Vietnam? And how many more
Vietnams are on the horizon now they have given Bush the mandate to go after
Iran, Syria, North Korea or Cuba...?
Today is a sad day for the world, but it's even sadder for the millions of
intelligent Americans embarrassed by a gung-ho leader and backed by a banal
electorate, half of whom still believe Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11.
Yanks had the chance to show the world a better way this week, instead they made
a thuggish cowboy ride off into the sunset bathed in glory.
And in doing so it brought Armageddon that little bit closer and re-christened
their beloved nation The Home Of The Knave and the Land Of The Freak.
God Help America.
Blind faith in bad leadership is NOT PATRIOTISM. |
