Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sundubuman]

last week I posted an article about a Frenchman who gets it......maybe samity is spreading.......


Die Presse, Austria
The Simplistic World of the Bush-Haters

Editorial by Christian Ultsch

Translated By Bob Skinner

June 20, 2006
Austria - Die Presse - Original Article (German)


Demonstrator depicts President Bush kicking the globe, during a
demonstration against Bush's visit to Vienna, June 21. (above).


RealVideo[SLIDE SHOW: Bush in Vienna].

C-SPAN VIDEO: President Bush at U.S.-E.U. Summit in Vienna,
defends himself and U.S. against critics, June 21, 00:37:44RealVideo

The U.S. delegation led by President Bush, meets European
Union delegates, led by Austrian Chancellor Schuessel, at Hofburg
Castle in Vienna, June 21. (below).





President Bush with U.S. Ambassador to Austria Susan McCaw
at a roundtable discussion with students at the Austrian National
Library in Vienna, June 21. (above)

C-SPAN VIDEO: President Bush at U.S.-E.U. Summit in Vienna,
defends himself and U.S. against critics, June 21, 00:37:44RealVideo

George W. Bush, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuesse, center,
and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, right,
at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria, June 21. (below)







Peace activist Cindy Sheehan marches protesters
in downtown Vienna, June 21. (above and below)



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is fashionable in Austria to blame the U.S. for all of the world's evils. What a scandal.

Even if George W. Bush arrives stylishly at the Vienna-Schwechat Airport, dancing down the stairs like Thomas Schaefer-Elmayer, happily crooning the Fiakerlied [Song of the Viennese Coachman], still, Austrian hearts will not look kindly on him. There is very little sympathy for the U.S. president in the Land of Schnitzel [Land of Fried Veal]. His fans, which he does have in this country, could fit comfortable in a street tram.

[Editor's Note: Thomas Shepherd Elmayer is the conductor of the Elmayer dance school in Vienna].

With Bush, the country, that is to say Austria, allows its anti-Americanism free rein. What was repressed for decades is now being openly displayed, in all of its odorous glory. Hating the U.S.A. has long since spread from radicals on the left- and right into the mainstream.

At the same time it has also become respectable for otherwise serious intellectuals to blame the U.S. for everything bad in the world, although in the Middle East the Israelis are blamed as well. Of the blatant incompetence and failure to modernize authoritarian Islamic societies, there is no mention. Despots gag and torture their subjects without a peep from Austrians. It is only when Americans violate human rights that Europeans, with sincere passion, take to the barricades. And wars have the ability to outrage only when the U.S. is a party to them. Chechnya? Forgotten. Genocide in Sudan? Not even considered. Sometimes it seems that all the critical energy of Austrian journalism concentrates obsessively on the U.S.

So as not to be misunderstood: the U.S. government should not be allowed to escape criticism for such villainy as Abu Ghraib. Anyone claiming to spread democracy and freedom about the world must measure up to a very high standard. Bush should not expect complicity when his War on Terror includes a casual disregard for the ban on torture, when prisoners swelter in confinement at Guantanamo, when several million more citizens than necessary are eavesdropped on. All of these things are occasions for justified criticism, which must be kept separate from hysterical mischaracterizations if it is to have the desired effect.

Many preconceptions concerning the Iraq campaign have proven true. Bush not only embarked on this war under false pretenses of WMDs; what's worse, he planned poorly. Nonetheless, only ex-business partners and unusually spiteful enemies of the United States can be concerned with the fate of Saddam Hussein, who has the blood of a million Iraqis on his conscience. Before the war the, the Pacifist Internationale [International Pacifists] never concerned themselves with Saddam's victims. Why should we expect them to care now?

In its history, the U.S.A. has had better presidents than George W. Bush. Anyone who could so drastically diminish his country's reputation in just six years must be doing something wrong. It's nonetheless disturbing how all those who accuse Bush of black and white thinking adopt the same attitude as the result of their own analysis. Bush serves as the ideal screen to project anti-American feelings. Even before the Texan took office, he was characterized as an ignorant, trigger-happy cowboy. Attempts to change this cartoon-like image have been rare. Long-distance analysis by amateur psychologists portray the U.S. president with a mental state lying somewhere between religious delusion and the sublimated delirium of an ex-alcoholic.

Some commentators heard the galloping of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse [RealVideo] when he was reelected. But the reality is quite different: The U.S. president has modified his foreign policy. In the nuclear standoff with Iran he has even changed U.S. policy, reaching out with an offer of dialog. That doesn't fit the clich� of the crazed, calculating evildoer, but follows the rational logic of real-politic, which takes into account the strategic weaknesses brought about by the Iraq war.

Bush learns from his mistakes: an unimaginable turn of events for Bush-Bashers. Still, those who love to hate the U.S. wouldn't change their world view if Bush turned the White House into an ashram and chanted anti-war mantras.

[EFLtrainer]

That idiot and you believe Bush does thigns because he "learns." Wrong. He does things because he must. He's got too much pressure from within his own party not to screw them out of control of congress and out of the White House.

As the Doobies once said, "What a fool believes he sees no wise man has the power to reason away."

Wait till the full brunt of his idiocy comes to bear as we struggle with th debt, the legacy of this "war" which has never been declared and the failure to lead on environmental issues.

[sundubuman]

i sense a certain foaming at the edges of your mouth....errr pinkies.....

[sundubuman]

[EFLtrainer]

I see you.... crapping your panties!!! I see you... banging your head in fury on the computer screen!!!

Stupid.

[happeningthang]

Well looking at recent news the 'dialogue' coming out of Vienna is a deadline for Iran to drop their nuclear programs in 9 days or face sanctions. Not exactly the, oh so reasonable "offer of dialog" Ultsch is presenting. Couple that with the news that bombing Iran wouldn't work, and the fact that he's still got Iraq to deal with, and Dubya's not looking as flexible as this Austrian would like it to seem.

He's reacting to the wholesale hatred being unleashed on Bush's America, but without any real argument to counter it he ends up with some wishy washy way to say Bush is an OK guy ... really.

[Gopher]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Wangja]

[On the other hand]

[dogbert]

In its history, the U.S.A. has had better presidents than George W. Bush. Anyone who could so drastically diminish his country's reputation in just six years must be doing something wrong.

Yes, someone in Austria gets it.

Now, if only more people in the U.S. had "gotten it" in 2000 and 2004.

[Wangja]

There was perhaps some excuse in 2000.

By 2004 the die was cast and there was none.

Fret not, only 930 days to go.

[dogbert]

The Bushes have been bad news ever since Prescott's boy escaped death in WWII. By all rights, that devil's line should have ended there.

Americans (of a certain age) will recall how nasty and incapable Bush Sr. was in 1980, when he fortunately failed to win the Republican primary. However, they elected him eight years later and he was a disaster. He's still alive though, for some reason.

Through that experience and after, Americans had the chance to see his moron sons (drug addicts, alcoholics) exhibit their own poor judgment and lack of governing skills as elected state-level politicians. Nonetheless, we elected the chimp-looking one twice to be our president.

Now, there is some thought that we might want to elect the youngest retard, Jeb (who has raised a passle of drug addicts and ne'erdowells), as president. (The oldest, Neil, is evidently too syphilitic or somesuch to be considered, even by the low standards that now obtain).

When will the madness stop? When will we decide we have punished ourselves enough?

[On the other hand]

[Kuros]