For the past two weeks I have been watching the news from South America, so imagine my surprise when I read the CNN headline, "Bush trip may have started healing Latin American rift". I think they forgot to mention something, like the HUGE protests in EVERY city he visited. Mayan Priests in Guatemala felt the need to purify a sacred site he visited to rid it of bad spirits. In Uruguay there were anti-imperialist rallies. The Brazilians called our President an assassin, claiming that he was simply a representative for the multinational companies that want to control bio fuels. Mexicans protested Bush's visit, his immigration policies, and his war with Iraq. So the question becomes: what does a lame duck President do when his country doesn't need him and other countries don't want him? And why isn't he being impeached?
Let's not forget the damage he's caused in THIS country:
3,199 US soldiers killed in Iraq
24,042 US soldiers wounded in Iraq and returning to substandard housing and medical care
Way to Support Our Troops, Mr. President!
To help soldiers far away keep in touch with their families, please click on this link.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
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4 comments:
It really is a shame that we squandered the opportunity to lead in the western hemisphere. The Foreign Policy of this administration has been so bungled that we can't even offer people money, albeit little, without them being suspicious or offended.
China, Iran, Russia, India and several other countries will so have more influence in our own back yard than we do.
This is just another example of this administration screwing up something else. Everything has been bungled, everything!
Sometimes you just want to scream.
AHHHH!
There is SO MUCH we could do to help South Amerca but our efforts are often hindered by this ridiculous war on drugs. The amount of money we spend hunting down pot smokers and smugglers could be put to much better use - like armor for our young men and women in Iraq. Outsourcing might go a little better for us if we were sending jobs to Mexico and South America. Maybe we wouldn't have such a large influx of illegal immigrants. Helping South America is in a large sense helping ourselves, but again, our focus on drugs negates much of the good we could do there.
Just because there were protests doesn't mean progress wasn't made towards "healing" the rift. ending the "War on Drugs" would be a good idea. But it won't happen. Too many police depts depend on siezed drug moneyu for their funding now and it provides too many feel good photo ops for politicians.
Exmi,
The protests weren't the only indication that the rift won't be healing anytime soon. No one I know in South American knows anyone who has anything good to say about President Bush or America's history with South America in general. Okay, so I guess that would be considered hearsay, but it doesn't make it any less true. If you want to heal the rift, send someone they like. Hell, send someone they can stand to be in the same room with when there's NOT a photo opportunity.
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