vailian

The destruction of the World Trade Center now 5 years ago. Shows how a tiny group of misguided idealistic and determined people can strike terror into a whole society. Bush in his sublime ignorance chose the worst possible response and used his own misguided idealism and determination to force America to turn to a new Dark Ages. His actions have endangered my life and the lives of my children. Until his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, I could be openly proud of being an American. Now I have to think twice before admitting my citizenship.

The governments he toppled have been replaced with what are in effect puppet regimes, which bear more resemblance to the puppet regimes set up by the Nazis in France, Czechoslovakia, Denmark etc. than they do to real governments of liberation. Bush claims to want to sponsor democracy all over the world, but his real friends in the affected regions are anything but democratic-- or does he claim that Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait are havens of democracy?

There will always be misguided idealists in the world, there always have been-- the proper response to these individuals is to treat them as they are: mentally ill. Bush has, in his ill-considered campaign, only created a world climate that sees America as an ignorant bully. He has single-handedly reduced respect for America and its traditional ideals and actually enhanced the rise of fundamentalism.

I will be very glad to see the end of his term of office, and can only hope that his successor will be someone with charisma and understanding. Is there someone out there who can fill this gap? (Much as I respect Hilary Clinton, I feel she should be a Vice-Presidential candidate; the only individual I see on the map with charisma is Obama)