World according to George W. Gump - America's George II is even madder than England's George III

[http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17064889%255E12272,00.html]

Amusing reality check on GW from Philip Adams, a columnist for Murdoch's mouth piece, "The Australian"

Here is an excerpt

For years fellow columnists and the PM have been telling us the sun shines from his presidential posterior, that despite his imper-son-ation of Forrest Gump imitating Jerry Lewis doing a parody of John Wayne, George was a political genius. While I've been suggesting that the bloke is, at best, a failed experiment in genetic engineering or a malfunctioning audio-animatronic robot that escaped from Disney World in his brother's state of Florida. And my reward for these helpful warnings? Accusations of political bias.

So here's a brief listing of the president's greatest hits, proof positive that America's George II is even madder than England's George III.

George's response to 9/II? He invades Afghanistan to terminate with extreme prejudice bin Laden and punish the Taliban. Bin who? He hasn't bin seen lately. The Taliban? They've withdrawn a few kilometres and the war lords, whose brutality and corruption made the Taliban welcome in the first place, are now back in the saddle. They're showing their gratitude to George by once more producing 80 per cent of the world's heroin.

Confusing Iraq with Iran (or possibly Syria) and confusing Saddam Hussein with bin Laden, George demolishes pretty much an entire nation. In further confusion, he mistakes palm trees for nuclear missiles and camels and donkeys for biological and chemical weapons. This leads to the deaths of 100,000 innocent Iraqis who had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center. George's war also involves the deaths of 2000 young Americans and tips the Iraqis into a civil war that will go on and bloodily on for decades. George further destabilises the world's most dangerous region and persuades a new generation to choose suicide bombing as a career.

And while his offsider Dick Cheney promises the invasion of Iraq would see oil drop to just 20 bucks a barrel, the Iraqis are now importing petrol ? and the price has nudged $US70.

While the war makes the Bushes best friends with the Blairs and the Howards, it turns the rest of the world against him. From being surrounded with goodwill and sympathy after 9/11, the Americans find themselves feared and isolated. And that's for starters.

Checklist: Bush maintains Saddam's policies at the local jail, tears up the Geneva Convention at Guantanamo Bay, threatens to veto John McCain's bill condemning the US's cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners – which also forbids further use of torture in interrogation. He reverses the US's proud progress on human rights under the guise of "homeland defence" and thumbs-downs the International War Crimes Tribunal.

Obedient to his allies in the coal industry, Bush refuses to sign Kyoto, demolishes legislation that gave some protection to America's air and water, ignores reports urging the urgent repair of the wetlands around New Orleans, makes a fool of the administration by buckling to Bible-belt bigotry on issues from Terri Schiavo to stem cell research, threatens UN agencies and NGOs with cessation of funding if they breathe a word about abortion or contraception to desperate women in Third World countries – and agrees with the Pentecostal/Vatican lobby in opposing condoms for millions of Africans doomed by the AIDS pan-demic. Yet George has the nerve to condemn Islamic fundamentalism.

Then there are small problems such as his ongoing attacks on the American poor, combined with his endless generosity to the top 1 per cent of income earners. Bush is in the process of ending capital gains tax, which will lead to the biggest transfer of wealth to the wealthy in US history. This amounts to a bigger drain on the nation's kitty than the Iraq fiasco ? and it will go on every day forever.

The Australian: World according to George W. Gump [November 05, 2005] - Philip Adams