bush era is over for Australians...

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As an Austrlalian, all i can say is thank god the Bush era is over.
i speak with quite a few americans and two of my uncles live in the States - both having done their time at Harvard and moving on to bigger and better things! (and yeah, college seems like a sentence to me.both times i tried to attend, it was about on par with my prison experience.)

it is interesting to consider how Americans perceive themselves in the eyes of the world, partiuclarly from my cultural and socio-political and economic standpoint.

As Bush continued on with this rather immature foreign policy approaches around the world (basically just using political position to open up new business channels for hima nd his texan cronies,) some of us - namley a lot of the rest of the world ---looked on with utter horror and amazement.

We looked on in amazement at the simplisitc immaturity of Bush's approach to IraQ and the WMD debate and we looked on in horror as Americans got on camera and ranted about the evils abounding in the rest of the world. (don't forget the U.S is the country that gave us Kentucky fried and Macdonalds!.....)

we looked on in horror at Guantanamo Bay.
And we looked on in horror at the kind of stuff perpetrated by the U.S military

Complex issues were reduced to the evils of osama bin laden and the rest of the world was pulled into a polarising black and white thiking - the new fundamentalism - that made me and other australian sick to the core.


just to top it all off, the Bush era also heralded the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the demise of the little guy - the Willy Lomans of the world - yet again. i
Isn't deregulation of the system just dandy? it gives all those hedgefund owners such nice sprawling estates and means their golf courses are comprised of grass blades soft as velevet. ya gotta give it to the big guy - wow - he knows how to live and CARE for his fellow man.

so, on that note, i say as an australian aspie who by 08 had had a complete gutful of amercian right wing politcal persuasions (and drive thru churches and christian findamentalism emanating from church tv shows which are now starting to f*@ck with my son's pure wolrd and head...) .......

GOOD RIDDANCE BUSH AND ALL YOU STAND FOR...........................

come on in barack - you may not be perfect, but here in Australia at least you halped to raise the public opinion of america as maybe a halfway decent place that has more going for it than we were thinking this past 8 years.

Please don't judge all of us by the leaders we elect. Many of us were just as horrified when we learned that the "Dr. Jekyl" candidate turned into a "Mr. Hyde" president almost overnight.

And some of us would be happy to share beers and barbecue with Aussies (and others) any time!

Hi Millie,

As an Australian I was going to reply to your post but on second thought what you have written is too stupid to even bother with..


Capt Katze

yes, you seemed so promising but now you've spoilt yourself, Millie. I don't feel i need to suck up to other nationalities here, nor to align myself with left/rightisms.

[/quote

hey fnord, i won;t judge all of you!
it really would be great to get a cross-continent convening of aspies some time......
so the idea of a bbq with you an dothers from Wp seems great.
i have just put a few prawns on the barbie for you and your family.
(my uncle who worked at an ivy league university for years as a specialist in gregroian chant actually voted for Bush. He's still a good guy...and he has been a goood uncle to me. He also knows i think his political views are total shite.)
my other uncle actually works on the Wall street journal and came out of the twin towers station when the planes hi. he ran to his office and saw bodies hitting the ground and splashing like watermelons. (his and his colleagues' descriptions.)

you have had a lot go in you rcountry in the past decade.
and i hope the next one is a good one for the US and the rest of the world.

You seem to be as out of touch with mentality of the American people as you claim Americans are with the rest of the world. You claim that your views represent the world outside of the United States; however, I fail to see much difference between the two.

The American people were appalled by the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
The American people were appalled by the behavior of individuals of the armed forces, and were glad that the wrongdoers were brought to justice.
The American people were angered by the misinformation that started the war in Iraq, and continue to look at that war with disgust.

Your comment regarding Osama bin Ladin is mildly outrageous. Was September 11, 2001 so long ago that you and the rest of the world have forgotten it? While life in Australia remains relatively unaltered by the tragedy of 9/11, the fabric of life in the States remains altered. Now we live under the shadow that the threat of terrorism presents. The American people see themselves as all potential targets by people who desire to see their utter annihilation. I personally felt the damage of 9/11: I went to school with the daughter of the pilot of the plane that crashed into the south tower. 22 members of my community died that day. Until the blissful sense of security that the American people once had is restored, and the ghosts of the dead no longer haunt the memories of the American people, the United States of America will not apologize, regret, or back down from any justifiable actions that help ensure the safety of the American people. We will not suffer the mass slaughter of our people, and I think every person alive feels the same for him and his own.

We feel just as you do in regards to ex-president Bush; however, your views of the American people are flawed, since you seem to have little understanding of life in America. Without a thorough and complete understanding of a subject, how can you or anyone else hope to correctly, accurately, and fairly evaluate that subject? You can't.

You are entitled to your opinions, but I must suggest that you keep broad, fallacious, generalizing statements which are born of willful ignorance to yourself, for such comments only evoke negative sentiments and severly harm any credibility your claims might possess.

Out of curiosity, how do you think we Americans perceive our image in the eyes of the world? I would love for you to share this most profound insight.

Haha, when I read, "bush era is over for Australians..." I expected the post to be about the Australian bush / countryside/ outback / boonies - whatever you call it. That's from the perspective of an American future-Aussie. I thought the OP was going to talk about how the suburbs are growing so rapidly they're taking over the bush, or something.

But anyway, I'm glad Bush is retired too. I'm going to Oz for the first time in a couple of weeks. Having Obama as president back home will make me more comfortable with being an American.

I've already moved from Texas to California and had people assume that just because I had lived in TX, I must be a Bush supporter. I didn't even live in Bush country - I lived in South Texas, the part that used to be part of Mexico and acts like it still is. No Bush in Mexico.

yeah? you should start a thread about it, let people know.

Most people in Texas I talk to can't imagine how he was ever elected bsed upon his record as govenor.

That's what I thought too

I do not understand american politics. If everyone hated him so much, why did he get reelected for a 2nd term

I did. It's in the Random Discussion (therefore probably got buried quickly). The title is "Going Overseas Alone".

I was initially a Bush supporter, but switched to the Democratic party.

I am going to see what kind of leader Obama is for now.

Wow, you just made an unfair generalization about Americans. How about actually living in the U.S. for a year AND (very important) actually get to know a lot of the people here. You will find that your accusations of Americans having such a blind view of the world false. Sure there are those who do actually have blind ignorance here, but that is part of the world we live in. You can go to any country and find such people who do not want to think farther than stupid generalizations. You, millie, are an example of this. Have a nice day.

:yawn:

You do realize Australia went into Iraq with the US, right? Just like you went in with the US on Vietnam.

Millie,

it is still the same country, we did not elect Bush, the other one was named Gore, and looked creepy. We did not elect Obama, the other one was from some place long ago, and could never forget.

Yes Iraq was a hoax, but after 9/11 we were going into Afganistan, and leaving Saddam behind you was not a good idea. Not after the first gulf war.

Afganistan is a mountain fortress, so drawing our enemy to the flat desert, where we had good supply lines, drew al khida fighters to their death.

This was serious and important business of state, so I doubt if anyone told Bush. Our Commander in Chief is a part time job, let the pros do it.

We were going to kill a lot of people who did not like us, we were going to lose a lot of good people doing it. There are rules for fighting armies, and rules for fighting suicide bombers.

Nothing has changed since the new guy came in. He is sending 30,000 more to Afganistan.

We don't want their country, we just came to kill people, and when there are no more jihadists, we will leave.

The west is not the cause of problems in the Islamic world, their problem is our problem, modern life and change.

These people bombed our embassys, ships, cities, so we are going to hunt them down and kill them.

As for Statesmanship, intelligent leaders, I listen, UN, Davos, and I rarely hear an intelligent or helpful comment.