[Mb-civic] The Guardian John Le Carr é

[Michael Butler]

Wednesday, October 13, 2004
    
    The Guardian
    John Le Carré
    Maybe there's one good reason - just one - for re-electing George W
Bush, and 
    that's to force him to live with the consequences of his appalling
actions, 
    and answer for his own lies, rather than wish the job on a Democrat who
will 
    then get blamed for his predecessor's follies.
    Probably no American president in all history has been so universally
hated 
    abroad as George W Bush: for his bullying unilateralism, his dismissal
of 
    international treaties, his reckless indifference to the aspirations of
other 
    nations and cultures, his contempt for institutions of world government,
and above 
    all for misusing the cause of anti-terrorism in order to unleash an
illegal 
    war - and now anarchy - upon a country that like too many others around
the 
    world was suffering under a hideous dictatorship, but had no hand in
9/11, no 
    weapons of mass destruction, and no record of terrorism except as an
ally of the 
    US in a dirty war against Iran.
    Is your president a great war leader because he allowed himself to be
    manipulated by a handful of deluded ideologues? Is Tony Blair a great
war leader 
    because he committed Britain's troops, foreign policy and domestic
security to the 
    same hare-brained adventure?
    You are voting in November. We will vote next year. Yet the outcome in
both 
    countries will in large part depend on the same question: how long can
the lies 
    last now that the truth has finally been told? The Iraq war was planned
long 
    before 9/11. Osama provided the excuse. Iraq paid the price. American
kids 
    paid the price. British kids paid the price. Our politicians lied to us.
    While Bush was waging his father's war at your expense, he was also
ruining 
    your country. He made your rich richer and your poor and unemployed more
    numerous. He robbed your war veterans of their due and reduced your
children's 
    access to education. And he deprived more Americans than ever before of
healthcare. 
    Now he's busy cooking the books, burying deficits and calling in
contingency 
    funds to fight a war that his advisers promised him he could light and
put out 
    like a candle. 
    Meanwhile, your Patriot Act has swept aside constitutional and civil
    liberties which took brave Americans 200 years to secure, and were once
the envy of a 
    world that now looks on in horror, not just at Guantanamo and Abu
Ghraib, but 
    at what you are doing to yourselves.
    But please don't feel isolated from the Europe you twice saved. Give us
back 
    the America we loved, and your friends will be waiting for you. And here
in 
    Britain, for as long as we have Tony Blair singing the same lies as
George Bush, 
    your nightmares will be ours.
    © David Cornwell 2004
    · John Le Carré is a novelist.