Reply With Quote
Cry me a river, editors...
At least there are a few who get it...
washingtontimes.com
Bush victory infuriates world press
By Gareth Harding
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
BRUSSELS — A mixture of dismay, despair — and in one case an unflattering assessment of the IQ of Americans who voted for President Bush — dominated European newspapers yesterday.
"How can 59,054,087 people be so dumb?" asked British Daily Mirror in a front-page banner headline that described the election result as a "disaster" and lamented "war more years."
"March of the Moral Majority," bellowed the headline on the Daily Mail.
The Independent let its pictures do the talking, with the top of Page One featuring images of Iraqis being tortured at the Abu Ghraib prison, hooded suspects on their knees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a Republican supporter with a sign saying, "Finally a Christian fighting evil, thank you George Bush."
The Guardian, a left-leaning British daily that encouraged readers to send letters to U.S. voters urging them to back Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry, commented:
"We may not like it. In fact, to tell the truth, we don't like it one bit. But if it isn't a mandate, then the word has no meaning. Mr. Bush has won fair (so far as we can see) and square. He and his country — and the rest of the world — now have to deal with it."
Not all British papers were depressed at the prospect of four more years of conservative rule.
"The world is a safer place today with George W. Bush back in the Oval Office," said the Sun, Britain's best-selling daily.
"His re-election is bad news for terrorists everywhere. They know President Bush means it when he vows to root out terrorism wherever it exists. John Kerry was weak on terrorism and weak on Iraq. His one moment of strength came when he conceded defeat with dignity instead of demanding recounts."
The conservative Daily Telegraph similarly said U.S. voters "have demonstrated once and for all that no power on earth can intimidate a free nation."
But the Telegraph — like papers from Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Switzerland and in Eastern Europe — also struck a note of concern about the trans-Atlantic chasm.
It urged Europe to come to terms with an America that "is diverging from Europe: It is younger, more self-confident, more prosperous, more devout, more diligent, more democratic and, in short, more conservative."
French newspapers, which had covered the election campaign in all its gory detail, could not hide their disappointment at Mr. Bush's victory.
Describing the result as a "revolution," an editorial in leftist daily Liberation declared: "A new reactionary majority has consolidated its hold on American democracy. The rest of the world may deplore it, but it will have to adapt to this reality."
Grudging respect for the free choice of American voters was a recurrent theme in many European newspapers .
Spain's leading daily, El Pais, commented: "George W. Bush is probably not the president the rest of the world would have wanted, but it is he who American voters have democratically elected."
Winning more votes than his opponent — unlike four years ago — and not having to rely on a Supreme Court ruling for victory mattered a lot to European newspapers, many of which never regarded Mr. Bush as the legitimate leader of the United States for the past four years.
"The American people have made their choice," said a front-page editorial in Belgian daily Le Soir. "It is now up to us to manage our relations with this key nation."
Many papers said Europe's response should be to get its act together, rather than grumble endlessly about American unilateralism.
"With or without us, America will continue its foreign policy of the past four years," said Hungary's Nepszabadsag. "Europe must close ranks and build a military force in keeping with its economic weight."
Germany's Der Tagesspiegel argued, "Europe should reconsider its ambitions, which seem naive, to act as a political counterweight to the USA."
Most German papers viewed Mr. Bush's re-election with dread.
In an editorial led "The Fundamentalist Majority," the center-left Berliner Zeitung commented: "The re-elected Bush claims he wants to reunite an extremely divided country.
"That's exactly what he promised four years ago, but he has done the opposite."
An editorial in Austria's Der Standard said of the Republican win: "The 11th of September prepared the U.S. for a man like Bush. He is the man of the dark hour."
For most European newspapers, this was not a contest between Mr. Kerry and the sitting president — it was a referendum on Mr. Bush's muscular foreign policy and conservative social values.
"Bush!" is the one-word headline on the front-page of Belgium's Le Soir, while the paper's rival La Libre Belgique was even pithier in its banner, opting for "W."
The only man more delighted with the result than Mr. Bush is "a skinny, bearded man hiding somewhere on the Afghan-Pakistani border," wrote Czech business daily Hospodarske Noviny.
The paper argued that Osama bin Laden "needs not only his faith in God Almighty but also a clearly defined enemy."
In Mr. Bush, the Saudi terrorist has one for the next four years. So do tens of millions of Europeans, the newspaper said.
Cry me a river, editors...
At least there are a few who get it...
Excellent.
"Infuriates"? Not quite. Everyone expected Bush to be re-elected. The only questions were: how close the result would be and would Bush be able to win the popular vote as well.
This quote pretty much sums it all. Most of us in Europe would have picked Kerry over Bush but, in the end, it is the US citizens who democratically choose who they want to run their country. And we cannot afford to ignore the only existing superpower. Hopefully, this will be a catalyst and Europeans will strive to build a better EU."The American people have made their choice," said a front-page editorial in Belgian daily Le Soir. "It is now up to us to manage our relations with this key nation."
You want a better EU? End the love affair with socialism...guess what? It sucks and it's not our fault it sucks. To quote the great intellectual Ronald ing Reagan...Those that read Marx and Lenin are socialists, those that actually understand them are capitalists.
The idea that you have to compete with us is entirely on your side of things. We like our economy we are going to protect and run it the same way until it no longer works...we will do this no matter what Europe does. When Europe starts to do something better than us we will simply say well done and copy it rather than trying to prove we are better by doing it differently.
Socialism is the enemy of civilization and technological advancement. You can be one type of culture or the other, you cannot be both. When Europe decides what it wants to be it will better off...what ever it decides I just hope it learns not to hate us if it doesn't work.
Same thing with the cultural compe ion, it is entirely on your side...we embrace other cultures here, all of them, except the ones where it acceptable to behead bound helpless civillians and deliberately target non military targets and civillians. We don't care who speaks English outside of America, we don't care who likes our movies outside of America, we don't care who likes McDonalds...actually I think a lot of us are surprised that McDonalds are even popular there...we think they suck, we eat at them out of convenience more than anything else. They most definitely are not our best burgers and I can see why you might think we are stupid if you believe we think those are good cuisine.
Anyway, you want fix the EU?
Give up state control of your industries, lower corporate taxes, look through the BS your government feeds you, try questioning your own governments as much as we, and you, question ours. To beat us you have to work more than us, so you might want to give up the 35 hour work week and state pension retirement at 50 concepts. Oh and tell all the lazy ing East Germans to get off their asses and become a productive part of your society. Doing those things will help quite a bit.
Meanwhile, how about an Olive Branch...how about we give you Michael Moore and how about you take that knife out of our back..you know, the one you put in there in our greatest hour of need...and use it against the Iranians instead. We'll be in touch...remember, we are your oldest ally, we are your friend.
Question:
Who would Europe have wanted in the White House in 1940?
Bush?
Kerry?
Why does not anyone ask this question to Britain, Spain or France???
The popular culture in the EU has been reduced to a doddering senility... they remind me of Grampa Simpson for the most part. They won't do anything to help anyone else, and they and moan when we're willing to spill our blood to help someone else... especially when it screws up their secret deals under the table with murderous tyrants.
But we'll still be here to pull their collective bums from the fire when needed. It's what responsible, mature adults do for those who can't take care of themselves any longer.
Don't lump the Brits in with Spain and France yet...their referendum on the war will come when Blair goes up for re-election(he will win)...like with Australia, like with America, the far left liberal and antiwar activist is a loud voice in those countries, that doesn't mean it's the majority. The Brits will finish the job they started, remember, they didn't make us wait 3 years before they joined us in this fight like we made them wait during WWII. They'll be fine and they are still more on the outside of the EU than on the inside. And we owe them and Blair bigtime when this is over...what ever we owed France and Germany has been paid in full and then some.
Our problems with Europe most definitely begin and end with our old French friends...there's Germany, but Germany they are never on our side in anything, and we should not be encouraging them to rebuild their military anyway, since the main purpose of their military is usually to kill the French and British..oh and us too.
Excellent post there Whottt. I think you are right on.
I knew it was a suicidal move to answer this thread...
Whott, I am not saying anything different. Well not entirely. When the EU has to compare itself to the US to gauge its level of compe iveness, economical developpment, etc, it shows that the EU was unable to set its own goals and most importantly it lacks a vision. But how could you expect anything different when the EU is by essence an unfinished project that will keep developping while it includes new members.
As for your rant against socialism, and though I live in a conservative led country, there are historical reasons why the EC, and then later the EU, has opted for strong welfare policies.
I agree that we are yet to see an economic model combining free markets and extensive social and welfare programs that will be succesful in the long run. It worked for some time in Germany but it couldn’t cope with the re-unification and Tony Blair’s Third Way has proved to be little more than just a catch phrase. However, Europeans do not envy nor do they feel resentful towards Americans for their healthy and growing economy. On the contrary, we are well aware that the stronger your economy is, the better is ours.
Cultural compe ion? I’m glad to hear that you embrace other culture, so do we (I know you were also referring to a specific French law banning the use of English in advertising without a French translation). Mc Donald’s? Huh, we eat there because it’s cheap and convenient, don’t you? It’s never been considered as the testimony of US cuisine. Give us some credit... sometimes.
Speaking of Olive Branch, do we need one? Believe me, we don’t hate you and never did we. France is fascinated by the US. Good times this fascination becomes fervent admiration, bad times it’s incomprehension.
Elo...thats good...I hope you're fellow countrymen share your view. There is absolutely no need for two countries such as France and The United States to hate each other. Perhaps with views like yours and mine, the fences can be mended.
The whole problem with the EU is that France is somehow at the center of its power structure.
Until that problem is rectified, the EU is on the fast track to .
Why suicidal Elo? I encourage you to participate in the forum. Some of us do have an interest in politics outside of the USA and are usually willing to discuss those things. It does tend to get boring hearing everyone talking about the US government. And if it was just a bunch of us agreeing with each other that would be boring as well.
Besides, your comments are tame compared to many pro-ter...er..liberal Americans. Just know a lot of us do have some hurt feelings right now.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
