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 [censored] 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.
Brian Reade writing in The Mirror