25th March 2003, 2:21 PM
Oh, I forgot that democratic governments were supposed to ignore what their people thought... how silly of me to think that the popular opinion would have a influence on a government...
And its HARDLY some transient opinion. I just read a long article in the 3/24 issue of Newsweek... I recommend it. Very good. It says how there are currently three countries of the 192 in the world where over half the population supports this war: the US, the UK (since the war started only), and Israel. That's it. And anti-US opinion is the strongest it has EVER been -- 90% against war in Turkey. 70 to 80 % in Europe. That is unprecedented... and it is good to note that that hatred did not exist until after Bush took control. Did people dislike us? Sure! But we followed international law, listened to the international community, were curteous to diplomats and other leaders (One big point that article made was how the US is making lots of people very angry with the way this administration brushes off international opinion, ignores the rest of the world, treats diplomats like they and their nations are inferior and unimportant, makes state visits (of us to them or them to us) as short as possible, etc, etc, etc... it truly is astonishing how much this administration has done to antagonize the world... and very, very sad.), kept our obligations to the world (kept treaties, followed the procedures of the UN and NATO, kept peacekeepers in places the UN is peacekeepng, and acted like the rest of the world was relevant and mattered to us). Bush has done NONE of those things... actually he has done the EXACT OPPOSITE. He has totally and completely obliterated the best opportunity in MANY, MANY years (the aftermath of 9/11) to get goodwill to the US stick and to improve our world opinion. Totally and completely destroyed it. And even more terrible he looks absolutely sure that he is RIGHT. As I said before, he truly believes that his actions are what God wants him to do. He KNOWS that he is right and everyone else is 100% wrong. And that is a VERY scary thing, given what it has done so far to the world...
I am very, very scared for what he will do in the next two years... this administration so far has been so unbelievably terrible that if it gets reelected... well then all bets for how badly the world could go down the tubes would be off...
And its HARDLY some transient opinion. I just read a long article in the 3/24 issue of Newsweek... I recommend it. Very good. It says how there are currently three countries of the 192 in the world where over half the population supports this war: the US, the UK (since the war started only), and Israel. That's it. And anti-US opinion is the strongest it has EVER been -- 90% against war in Turkey. 70 to 80 % in Europe. That is unprecedented... and it is good to note that that hatred did not exist until after Bush took control. Did people dislike us? Sure! But we followed international law, listened to the international community, were curteous to diplomats and other leaders (One big point that article made was how the US is making lots of people very angry with the way this administration brushes off international opinion, ignores the rest of the world, treats diplomats like they and their nations are inferior and unimportant, makes state visits (of us to them or them to us) as short as possible, etc, etc, etc... it truly is astonishing how much this administration has done to antagonize the world... and very, very sad.), kept our obligations to the world (kept treaties, followed the procedures of the UN and NATO, kept peacekeepers in places the UN is peacekeepng, and acted like the rest of the world was relevant and mattered to us). Bush has done NONE of those things... actually he has done the EXACT OPPOSITE. He has totally and completely obliterated the best opportunity in MANY, MANY years (the aftermath of 9/11) to get goodwill to the US stick and to improve our world opinion. Totally and completely destroyed it. And even more terrible he looks absolutely sure that he is RIGHT. As I said before, he truly believes that his actions are what God wants him to do. He KNOWS that he is right and everyone else is 100% wrong. And that is a VERY scary thing, given what it has done so far to the world...
I am very, very scared for what he will do in the next two years... this administration so far has been so unbelievably terrible that if it gets reelected... well then all bets for how badly the world could go down the tubes would be off...