24 Nov 2004 Fighting Words – Oh, Never Mind, It’s Just Not Worth It

As Sean once said about a screed by an American leftist, sometimes these left-wing communiques just fisk themselves:

I have sensational news for everybody who thinks that the general European Anti-Bush “movement” is simply created by biased media, and that Bush is a misunderstood intellectual.

We do not hate Bush because of that. We dislike him because of the politics he advocates.

Bush is not a “strong leader.” A strong leader is a man who knows what he is dealing with, who is able to consider every aspect and many viewpoints on a case before making big decisions.

No one can seriously accuse Bush for being that. Bush is a mediocrily gifted man without much knowledge of politics or the world in general, nor has he much interest therein. He does never think twice before doing what his advisers tell him.

His war on terror has not and will not make the world a safer place, because its efforts are directed at the wrong places (Iraq instead of Saudi-Arabia).

Bush has scorned many international agreements in a minute – Kyoto, Hand weapons, ABM-treaty, landmines, international court tribunal and alternative energy.

We disagree with his attitude towards homosexuals, abortion and capital punishment, and we have his belief that he is in contact with God in as much derision as the like belief of Osama Bin Laden – yes, in that aspect they have indeed much in common.

No positive press could help these facts – we simply do not like his politics, and that’s it.

And we can actually read American news – contrary to 99% of the U.S Americans, we Europeans actually speak more than one language.

And no, we can’t allow ourselves to be indifferent of which president the U.S.A elects – your policies have profound consequences for us as well. We will ultimately pay a great deal of the price that will soon need to be paid for Bush’s disastrous economic policy with the huge budget deficits.

Bush is the president, that’s right – we have to live with him, but we do not have to like him – and we never will – we simply have too little in common.

That’s the hard facts – Americans, DEAL with it, then we will try to live with George Bush.

Christoffer B. Harder from Denmark

P.S. Please don’t call me anti-American because of this – I come from Denmark, one of the few European countries whose government still supports Bush’s war in Iraq (though most people did not or were very skeptical). I really do think that even a U.S.A led by Bush is to prefer as sole superpower from which it could be else – China, France or Russia, who knows.

We still think that Europe and the USA have indeed much in common. But I also do think that my above view is absolutely fair, balanced and based on facts, viewpoints and opinions from many sides.

I have no doubt this gentleman believes himself to be “fair and balanced,” and I do credit him with the grudging compliments to the U.S. he did make (we’re better than Russia, China or France). But it seems pretty clear that he does not understand us very well.