Introduction

By Jan Oberg

This PressInfo is written by concerned American citizens. They express their thoughts upon reading PressInfo # 143, Bush's "State of War Address". Among them are activists, leadership experts, consultants, business people, professors, a priest, editors, while others who wrote are simply concerned citizens. They are about an equal number of men and women. Below you can read what they think and feel.

All are critical of Bush's policies. Did we select only Bush-critical messages? No. However, only one (1) among some forty responses was critical to the analysis in PressInfo # 143: a US government envoy to a conflict region wrote back without offering his name, "I would prefer that I do not receive crap news like this one."

These are the main themes:

- Bush does not speak for me. I disagree with U.S. foreign policy.

- I am ashamed that he is our President. I do not trust the motives of this administration, nor think that it is honest.

- I feel helpless. It is very difficult to influence politics here.

- I am angry or I am afraid, or both. This government is not benevolent; it is jingoistic.

- Critical analyses are hard to find in the media. The critical voices from around the world are virtually ignored; it feels as if there is no free press.

- This government lacks empathy with the world in general and sympathy for other people's suffering. We should spend more money on bridging the gap between rich and poor instead of on weapons.

- We should ask ourselves why this happened to our country and not just fight a war.

- What if some country treated the United States the way we treat some others?!

- America has come to a turning point; America is faded. "George W. Bush has tainted and destroyed any pride I may have once had for this once great nation founded by the Washingtons and Jeffersons and Adams of yesteryear. His boastful pride and self inflating ideals will be the ultimate destruction of this varied land."

- George W. Bush is not up to it intellectually, he is a "rodeo clown," a man with dangerous cowboy rhetoric. He oversimplifies the world.

- The President is run by right-wing money interests that also shape the media. He lacks legitimacy since he did not win the elections but took office anyway.

- It's hard to believe that this war on terrorism was not planned long before September 11.

- Are we moving closer to some kind of world war? One correspondent expresses it this way: "It is very sad to see a land that was once a beacon of hope to all countries now reduced to what my grandparents fled Germany for - pure self-serving fear and hatred of anything that stands in its way of total power."

These are critical comments, arising from anger, sadness or frustration - of the feeling of powerlessness. No one sent ideas or proposals on how to get America on track in a more peaceful direction. One writes, "I may effect change energetically through my thoughts and prayers." If anything signals the crisis of American democracy, this is it: people do not believe that they have the power to make a difference. Leaders do not listen.

Here follow excerpts from the responses we received. We recommend you read them and then reflect on the questions at the very end of this PressInfo.

This is what concerned Americans tell us

- "I am horrified by this administration, not only by our imperialistic foreign policy but also the revoking of our freedoms internally."

- "I don't trust him, his cabinet or anything they say. I disagree as I have from the start with our response to the 11th, and the longer this continues the more vehement my opposition becomes…I desperately want to stand up against this insanity, I just don't know how to do it. I've asked this question dozens of times and still have no answer. How do I get my objections in front of those that matter, and get them read? You know, it's sad that I don't even have the faith that writing my so called representative will net any results."

- "I'm ashamed and embarrassed by our current global activities. The 11th saddened me greatly, because I can't for a second watch those buildings come down and not wonder what in the name of God have we been doing in the world for this to happen. This jingoistic flag flying society we now live in is repulsive to me."

- "I know we have an obligation to those less fortunate, I'm not saying abandon basic human concern. The problem as I see it is that there is always another motive, another agenda that the government won't cop to. Then there's the problem with the individuals, all out for their own reward. The help is always given like the mob, we become an uninvited dinner guest and don't you dare say I wasn't invited, mention blackmail again and I'll break both your legs you ungrateful country, look at all I've done for you. We end up imposing ourselves on people in ways they revolt against."

- "I can't imagine what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot. Can you imagine what would happen to them, the uprising that would happen here? Crimminy! Get bombed by Japan and they help us out by air dropping sushi rolls and soy sauce. Yikes!"

- "When I read how much money we spend on military in comparison to how much it would cost to give some poor country a toilet and someplace to empty it, it embarrasses me even more. We in America live in a very sheltered place when you think about it. There are countries that live with the insanity of the 11th every day. Maybe not to that extreme, but the fear of terrorism in their own neighborhoods every day, 24-7. For me personally it was a terrifying wake up call."

- "There are those of us out here that want a voice, can you help in telling me where to cry out?"

- "Many of us in America feel the same dangers in Bush's cowboy rhetoric and his total inability to see anything except in infantile black and white terms. We have come to a very bad point, and it is very difficult to see what remedies there are to a situation that grows worse everyday."

- "Thanks for your well-written analysis of the President's recent speech and certain aspects of American policy/culture. I feel it unfortunate that such views will largely remain unheard in the US, outside of relatively marginalized groups. I feel that even if someone doesn't agree with your ideas, at least you stated some ideas cogently providing a basis for reasoned discussion. Unfortunately, the majority of US society prefers to be spoon fed pre-packaged jingoism."

- "I hope that you are aware of some (or many) of the groups in the US which see the world very differently from GWB and his administration, and are working in very different ways to move in the direction of peace and justice. I thank you very much for your analysis of George W. Bush's address on Tuesday evening. I share your assessment of his very bellicose speech, and your concerns about its worldwide and national effects. "

- "Sometimes people have to step back from the trees to see the forest. Your extremely thoughtful response to Mr. Bush's speech helps us to do so. I will admit to being an ardent Democratic Party activist, so my thoughts are obviously filtered as such. I have, however, felt all along that Mr. Bush is very weak intellectually and that he speaks primarily as directed by his handlers. The "crisis" brought on by September 11 was right down his alley.

He feels very comfortable standing before an audience and rave about one thing: terrorism and its threat to this country. This is simple to do - it's black and white. (I don't know how many times I have heard him say "we're going to smoke them out of their holes" meaning the Taliban soldiers). I don't believe he has the ability to handle situations that are complex and that require intelligent understanding. He is too inarticulate and undereducated to see issues in depth and to look at both sides of a story.

In short, this man scares me. He is controlled by a far-right coalition of big money rollers who dictate policy to him and expect him to support their selfish views. He has no conception of the rest of the world and will continue to make decisions with a unilateralist and isolationist viewpoint.

I am a world apart from this man, and I only hope he does not do too much damage before finally leaving office. He has already unraveled many of the things I hold dear, and this is a very difficult time for me also. Thank you again for your very learned thoughts."

- "Thank you for a thoughtful and penetrating evaluation of a truly terrifying reality that faces us, in the person of George Bush and his advisors. Though a long term resident of the US (38 years), I could not bring myself to watch this man on television, though did read most of the speech in the newspapers the next day.

WHAT CAN WE DO! The electoral process is useless---since he didn't even win the election, but took office anyway. The mainstream media are all in the hands of his advocates. I feel powerless and helpless in font of this political chasm."

- "Be assured, we are not among the Americans whose souls were comforted by Bush's address. We still consider that he was appointed by the Supreme Court, not elected by the people. My wife and I received Jan Oberg's analysis of Pres. Bush's State of the Union address from a friend and appreciated it very much. We have forwarded it to a number of people, several whom have already responded positively. "

- "To begin with the US (this has nothing to do with Bush personally) the US, I repeat, are - and have been for many years - disrespectful of practically the whole world.

As to the bellicose bit, Bush spelt it out very clearly that we are at the beginning of the war and that it will be a long affair. I knew this anyway, not only because the bombing of Afghanistan was planned long before 11 September, both in America and Europe, and in meetings involving several countries and sometimes the Northern Alliance, but also, because at least two weeks before the bombing of Afghanistan began, diplomats friends in Islamabad told me they had already learnt from their American counterparts that they would have to get used to the idea of 2 to 3 years of war, unless American plans went wrong."

- "Sir, your analysis of Bush's speech, is shared with many Americans, they just aren't bold enough to question ANYTHING! America is faded, we the people, chant out "patriotism", to remind the world of our might, once we have bombed whoever Washington says is bad, our "patriotism" fades.

America believes what they are told, because the alternative would show, how and why the US is the "super-power". The US success has left a wretched trail that no words, can justify. Americans will take just so much. We do not, nor have we ever trusted the government.

Americans are turning away from the one sided US media, and seeking truthful, balanced reporting. It is writers as yourself, that bring the WHOLE picture together, so it can be well understood, and for that: I thankyou."

- "I'm horrified by what Bush is doing both to my country and to the world. He was dishonestly elected and continues that dishonesty in running the country. I 100% agree with everything Oberg says. Right now I feel overtly powerless to do anything; I didn't vote for him, I certainly won't vote for anyone that supports him nor anything he supports. What I've been doing instead, since Sept. 11th, is daily meditating on world peace and working to transform my life so that it reflects more peace and love. Even though I may be overtly powerless, I may effect change energetically through my thoughts and prayers."

- "It angers and frustrates me that my country is in the hands of this Rodeo Clown (now there's a phrase for you to look up). On second thought, I'll explain it - normally in this country we'd describe someone who is reckless and disregarding of conventional rules as a cowboy. It's an especially fitting description of Bush as he's from Texas, where cowboys originated from.

However, in my opinion Bush isn't even a cowboy, he's a mere rodeo clown. Nowadays cowboys engage in reckless, inhumane sports called rodeos, where they sit on top of either an untamed horse 'bucking bronco' or even a bull. Rodeo clowns are in the arena to distract the bull/bronco. Anyway, not someone to respect, not even risking his life but prancing around the arena with everyone laughing at him...and absolutely the last person I'd want leading me through this delicate and dangerous situation with terrorists."

- "Increasingly, I am concerned that diverse and challenging points of view are either silenced, played down, or neutralized in the jingoist atmosphere evident in America during the past 5 months. I am writing to express my sincere and deep appreciation for the thoughts and position expressed in your article, "Bush's State of War Address" (1/30/02). Please keep writing and publishing your thoughtful articles. I sincerely believe them to be critical in the continuance of participatory democratic practice throughout the world."

- "I am living in The States. I was born in the states, and I am thinking of leaving this country long behind me. "President" Bush insulted the international community with his speech and many American's who see him for the fraudulent liar he is. It is very sad to see a land that was once a beacon of hope to all countries, and my own grandparents now reduced to what my grandparents fled Germany for - pure self-serving fear and hatred of anything that stands in its way of total power. I have no solutions or answers to this problem. My voice is so small and tiny, there is so little I can even imagine of doing to help America wake up to see the dream for the nightmare it is. But I thank you for your words, they are very shrewd and support my idea that this is not the land of my forefathers and is a place that I will have no regrets in deserting for a safer and smarter land. George W. Bush has tainted and destroyed any pride I may have once had for this once great nation founded by the Washingtons and Jeffersons and Adams of yesteryear. His boastful pride and self inflating ideals will be the ultimate destruction of this varied land. Signed "ashamed to be an american".

- "I did not listen to the state of the union address as I thought it would make me sick. The more the US moves in this us/them, good/evil direction, the more I think to myself "stop the world, I want to get off."

- "I just want to say that many Americans do not agree with Mr Bush. If you remember he was barely elected to the job. There are those who view him as a dangerous liability when it comes to world peace. We also fear his reckless policies regarding our planet's fragile ecological well being. We're just waiting for the chance to vote him out. Count me as a concerned American and world citizen."

- "I was very disappointed with President Bush's State of the Union message.

- "We will win," he says. By "we," he apparently means only the American people. He mention that the British helped with the war. He didn't mention the Germans. He didn't even mention the United Nations. It seemed to me to be a completely one-sided, chauvinistic speech, talking only about us. But we live in a world. People all over the world are in great need, and they are just as important as we are. If only his speech had indicated in some small way that we are only one small part of the world's people. He asked for the largest increase in military spending in the last 20 years.

Far better it would be if that money were used to help bridge the great gap between us and the poorer people of the world. If we just protect ourselves and the gap between us and the poor nations remains, there will be continued instability and increased chance of wars. Far from winning, in the long run, it will be a great loss. I hope we will wake up soon to the fact that we are only a part of a whole world of people, and we need to reach out and help them, and not only ourselves."

- "It is so very sad that this great country to which we all had looked up to has succumbed to the simple minded jingoistic formulas of the most hard line and tough types from the American right. As if the Gun Lobby and the Abortion Activists were not enough - not to speak of the White supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan - we now have a President with 85% popularity ratings who by passes the State Departments admittedly weak efforts, and caves into the misguided ideas of Paul Wolfowitz. Beating the war drums is one way to gain popularity, but this could end up very badly all around.
American unilateralism is a version of "Fortress America" isolationism. It is a worrying sign of the insularity of this great country. It bodes ill for the future of international institutions."

- "There are millions of people here in the U.S. (all the people who voted for Al Gore, the "lesser of two evils") who don't share the views of George Bush Jr. and his cronies, and if G.B. goes on T.V. and gives a blowhard, one-sided, ignorant speech as he did in his "State of the Union", while it must sound fearful to the world outside the U.S., I have to say it is only a drop in the bucket of World History.

I send emails regularly to the President and to my legal representatives expressing my anti-military, anti-Republican views, and there are plenty of other people here doing the same, as well as staging public protests and exercising their views at the voters' polls. Unfortunately, the Sept. 11th attacks happened on this President's watch, and as a Republican Conservative Christian, he is using it as an opportunity to abuse what he sees as his righteous "American" power, just as his own father did when he was in office, and just as many like-minded U.S. Republican Presidents have before them.

Yes, it is indeed scary, and though he may do much damage to the world while he is in office in the name of so-called Americanism, I do not believe that he will be re-elected. If he is, I may be moving to Canada! In a country of this size, it is unfortunate that votes are bought rather than merely tallied, but it is a powerful political machine indeed that puts a candidate in office.

As the Pres himself would say though, and I believe I speak for the sensible compassionate people who make up the more intelligent population of this country, "we will prevail".

If you are also concerned about the developments in the United States, please think constructively about these issues:

GOALS AND ACTORS:

What should be done now? And by whom?

RESPONSIBILITIES:

What can I do alone, and what can I do together with others?

STRATEGY:

How can we in the United States develop an effective strategy to promote better policies? How can democracy become participatory rather than manipulative?

COALITION-BUILDING FOR PEACE:

What should people and governments around the world do to convince the leadership of the United States that different policies are necessary, desirable and possible?

DIALOGUE:

Discuss these issues with as many as you possibly can.

We at TFF urge you to share your views. Americans and all other nations around the globe.

Please write to AmericanDialogue@transnational.org. We appreciate if you write your name and country. This information will be known only to TFF. Your views will be published anonymously unless you explicitely tell us you want it to be public.

We will then selected messages to inspire our 500-1000 daily visitors.

And perhaps, one day, we will see better policies?

Without people's voice, we won't...

© TFF 2002

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