Letters From A Tory

In times of crisis, with international peace and the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians at stake, it is heartening to know that George W Bush is willing to do whatever it takes and sacrifice whatever he must to ensure that the war against terror is won.

When the world is facing financial meltdown and on the verge of a food crisis that threatens to destroy millions of lives around the globe, it is comforting to see George W Bush taking everything so seriously.

One wonders what 2009 holds for both nations as new Presidents take office.  Will the world be a better or worse place without these two figureheads?

“Hey, look here, I found me some Arab women who don’t cover their face!”

Dear President Bush,

The loss of support you have suffered from the American public in 2007 will not have escaped your attention and your sparse media coverage in the last few months is partly a result of this.  Yourself and Tony Blair have turned your attention to the Israel-Palestine conflict with some vigour over the past few days, and much as I loathe both of your records as heads-of-state I cannot help but feel a little optimistic.

Tony Blair spent 10 years as British Prime Minister and yet there is only one memory that people will hold of his time in office - Iraq.  After being heralded as one of the greatest politicians of our time, his dramatic fall from grace will haunt him forever.  Your approach to the ‘war on terror’ has been almost univerally flawed and many people have died as a result, but Tony Blair’s demise may, in a peverse manner, offer you some hope.  He will always be remembered for his last significant act, which happened to be a disastrous war.  However, you could find that your presidency is also remembered primarily for its last act - and if this act is taking a large step towards a solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict, I suspect the history books will look on you favourably.  Your tough-talking over the past 48 hours is in sharp contrast to the rest of your dealings with Israel and I am extremely glad to see you take such a strong line.

I do not respect you or admire you in any way, but if your last act as president is to help make the Middle East and the world a safer place, I will take my hat off to you.  Time to get down to business, Mr Bush.

Best wishes,

A.Tory

Well, you can’t blame the poor kid, can you.

(from Reuters)

Dear George Bush,

The continued presence of your military in Iraq is a sensitive issue for many reasons.  Not only do you have to contend with the violence aimed at your troops from within the country, nations surrounding Iraq have a key role to play in your efforts as well.  This goes a long way to explaining why you attempted to rewrite history yesterday by declaring that the death of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during WWI was not genocide.  Thankfully, Congress disagreed.

Your argument was that passing a Bill in support of the term ‘genocide’ “would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in Nato and in the global war on terror”.  That maybe true, but doesn’t it disturb you that rather than honestly pursue the truth you would prefer to have the history books record a false version of events to keep the Turkish President on your side?  The prospect of rewriting history for your own purposes is unacceptable.  It reminds me of the terrible fate of Rwanda, where millions of people were left to be slaughtered because the UN discussions (dominated by the US) decided that if it was classed as genocide, they’d have to do something about it - so you took the easy way out and decided it wasn’t genocide and let the slaughter continue unabated.  Having also tried to rewrite history on the subject of how the Iraq war began, it is quite clear that your regard for the truth, honesty and integrity is pretty minimal and will only be adhered to if it suits your purposes.  Admittedly your best mate Tony also tried to rewrite history recently when he blocked an investigation into corrupt arms deals with Saudi Arabia, but that hardly exonerates you.

I don’t care if the Turkish President is unhappy about all this and I don’t care if the strategic use of Turkey becomes more difficult in future.  You simply cannot behave like this and expect to get away with it.

Yours angrily,

A.Tory

Dear George Bush,

It is well documented that you often have a little trouble with your words, but your inability to define and make progress in your ‘war on terror’ continues to be your achilles heel.  ETA have just released a statement to remind everyone of their violent nature as they intend to “strike at Spanish state structures on all fronts” as punishment for not granting independence to the Basque region of Spain.  Now, let’s be clear about this - you and many other world leaders have branded ETA as a terrorist organisation, they have killed thousands of innocent civilians since their terror campaign began, and yet you and your ‘allies’ remain silent when faced with this statement.

I don’t mean to trivialise a very complicated and delicate issue in Spain, but a bit of consistency would be nice.

Yours in annoyance,

A.Tory