View from Across the Pond

This was forwarded by a friend from England, our ally supposedly. Read it to the end. It sums up my feelings about the election.

------ Forwarded Message
 
Subject: God help America (no joke)
I'm forwarding below text of a piece published in London's Daily Mirror,
that was forwarded to me:
 
" GOD HELP AMERICA"
 
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.

 
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.