Anti-americanism

If President Bush wins, it will be interesting to see what happens to the nature of anti-Americanism in other parts of the world. At the moment, surveys are reporting that Americans themselves are not unpopular, although the present Administration is widely despised. How would that change if the Americans seemed to take the decision to approve of Bush, after all the (perceived) bad things he has done?

Hunter S Thompson makes the same point:

The question this year is not whether President Bush is acting more
and more like the head of a fascist government but if the American
people want it that way. That is what this election is all about…

War on Terror != WWII

Martini Republic gives us a snapshot of the Second World War 1,138 days after Pearl Harbor, today being 1,138 days after 9/11.

Of course, the Poles, British, French and others had been fighting for some time before Pearl Harbor happened, but the point still applies. The territorial advance for this sort of war is not on the ground, but in the mind – and there it’s looking a lot more like Dunkirk than the relief of Paris.

The difference between the future and the past

(Minutes from the No. 10 Lobby briefing of journalists)

“Asked if the Government remained committed to a draft Bill on [corporate manslaughter laws], the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson said that it would be inappropriate to comment on the contents of the forthcoming Queen’s Speech. Put to her that she had commented in detail on the Gambling Bill, the PMS pointed out that the Gambling Bill had been included in last year’s Queen’s Speech.”