September 25th, 2008.

Dear George Bush,

It was on your watch, you know.  It was on your watch that this global economic meltdown happened.  It was after 8 years of your presidency that the house of cards that you presided over came tumbling down.  Your brand of laissez faire economics opened the door and the liberties taken by your bankers have brought everybody on this planet to this situation.  You won’t suffer too much, though, but others will and it happened on your watch.

It was on your watch that the attacks on the World Trade Centre happened.  The reasons behind the attacks were, in part created and put in place by you and it was on your watch.  The lack of security that your country experienced happened on your watch.

It was on your watch that the invasion of Iraq took place.  The world became a less safe place on your watch.  The deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq took place on your watch and as a consequence of your inability to stay the course of weapons inspections and sanctions. Tony Benn said that all war is a failure of diplomacy, well this failure of diplomacy or ideas or alternatives, happened on your watch.  It was on your watch that the world looked on at the torture of shackled prisoners by your soldiers and the setting up of internment-without-trial camps in Guantanamo bay.

It was on your watch that the United States became the unwelcome bully of the planet.  For a country that gave the world Rock and Roll, that kicked out Nixon when he misbehaved, that put the first man on the moon, that provided a welcome for tens of millions of emigrants, that built Hollywood and made movies like Schindler’s List, that bailed out Europe twice in the 20th century when war looked like it was going to destroy our continent, how did you get it so wrong?

But it was on your watch that the reputation of the United States has been sullied.

The cheering crowds that welcomed John F. Kennedy in Berlin in June 1963 will not be seen by you.  The only welcome you receive on your travels around the world are the crowds of protesters that rightfully see you as a warmonger and poor neighbour.

It was on your watch that 50 Million Americans remained without access to healthcare.

It was on your watch that 32 students were killed at Virginia Tech by legally-held pistols and when 9 Christmas shoppers were killed in Omaha by Robert Hawkins AK-47, and when Tyler Peterson killed six people at a party last year using his Armalite rifle.

Your watch is nearly over now George.  It won’t be fondly remembered by many.  Your mantra about the ‘enemies of freedom’ seems to sit oddly against your record of restricting freedom in your own country using the faux fig-leaf of ‘patriotism’.  Your economic policies have sent your country from the highs of its largest ever budget surpluses to the greatest economic crisis in living memory.  A gallon of gas in the US was a little over a dollar when you came to office.

Your day in the sun is nearly over George and my hope is that John McSame is not awarded a third Bush term in the White House.  I won’t be able to deal with it, George.  Another four years of your policies?  Four years of America being run by a man who cannot use a computer and who doesn’t know how many houses he owns and who voted against Martin Luther King day?

I know you are hoping that on the next watch, there will be a continuation of your love of the gun criminals and Sarah Palin really does look like she is going to continue this for you, doesn’t she?  You must be proud of her - she knows even less about foreign policy than you do, she cares less about the environment than you do and she sure as hell knows less about economics than you do.  She’ll make you proud.

But, George, I think the American people have had enough.  I think they have had enough of all the turbulence of the last eight years.  They have had enough of the uncertainty, the sight of profiteers who made money from Iraq, from oil prices shooting up, from homeowners loosing their property.  I think the American people cannot stand you and I’m hoping they cannot stand your party and those that are coming along behind you.

Fortunately, George, even you couldn’t fully dismantle the democratic underpinnings of your country - even though Lord knows you tried with that Patriot Act.  There is still free speech in America.  There is still Democracy and now, thankfully there is a real choice.

I hope above all else right now, that the American people vote for Barack Obama.  I hope that when your watch is over, its like will never be seen again.  I hope for a day when the president of America is once again welcome all over the world.  I hope for a day when shopping mall shootings are a thing of the past.  I hope for a day when the person in charge of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal can actually pronounce the word ‘nuclear’.

I support Barack Obama because he stands for everything that you do not stand for.  He supports science, which clearly frightens you.  He is not bought and paid for by big business, like you.  He is not the same as you and this means that he has my support.

Good bye George.

James.