Don't Blame All Problems On Bush The Jakarta Post, Friday, January 30, 2009
I am an American history teacher and I have an interest in Indonesian political, social and economic issues because I have an Indonesian-Chinese daughter (who is kept in Jakarta against my wishes). Consequently, I read The Jakarta Post from my home in Virginia whenever I can. I’m sorry to say that there seems to be as many misconceptions about America, its history and its place in the world among Indonesians as there are misconceptions within America among its own people. For example, to say that America was a “country founded by slave-holders” is misleading. Some of the founding fathers owned slaves but many did not and many of the founders fought vigorously against slavery. Many of the critics of President Bush seem to lack both perspective and judgment. The American president’s primary responsibility is to keep the nation safe, and President Bush did that for seven years. The present economic crisis is more the result of market forces and a Democratic Congress than Bush’s economic policies. For the record, Bush’s presidency brought a 30 percent reduction in homelessness, six years of economic growth, 52 months of job growth, teacher accountability, a 12 percent rise in personal income, lower taxes, the removal of a dictator, opportunities for millions of Afghans and Iraqis they never had before, a savings of millions of African lives from malaria and AIDS through health and education programs, to name some of his achievements. Richard Karavidas Virginia Source: THE JAKARTA POST URL: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/01/30/letter-don’t-blame-all-problems-bush.html Comments: Rod H from Sydney Hi Richard, I am not an Indonesian, I am from Australia. George W Bush should go down as Americas Worst ever president. If you are that blind that you canot see he is clearly a war criminal and should be tried in the hague then there is something wrong with amercia. He ''INVADED''(without UN backing or support) another country that had absolutly nothing to do with the 911 attacks, your troops then killed innocent civilians in that country, under orders from your president, as per the UN charter on war crimes, that makes him resposible for those killed by Amercian Troops. Ecconomically he has caused more damage to your country than any other president, and he has definatly not made you more ''safe'', if anything he has made the qworld hate america. I am an Australian, we have many different cultures that live here, and to say that Amercians are hated world wide is almost becoming common place. Barack Obama might be your one last hope to claw back some sense of diginity and honour for your country. I almost like to compare him the Nero, he almost played his fiddle while America burned to the ground. If you do not agree with me thats ok, but if you talk to people from other countries will see I am right. David K This is an extremely unpopular point of view. Actually saying positive things about Mr. Bush. Of course most people will just stare at you like you were insane for saying these things because the hatred is to badly ingrained. Due to an overwhelmingly popular demand to hate someone for your own problems. Mr. Bush did his job, he promised America would be kept safe from any more terror attacks. And he accomplished his job. Also the other items that you mentioned that his administration accomplished without the fanfare that the current president enjoys, where his every cough, every sigh, every wink or high five is placed on youtube by his promoters. Even if there were founding fathers that owned slaves, every culture and civilization had some form of slavery incorporated at one point or another. What makes America great is that it moved from this to a equal society where gender, race, age are not predetermining factors of where you will go in life. Your skills and determination are what is valued. Mr. Bush took the country when the democrats had already successfully left it rotting and did the best he can. What is funny though is All these people hate america, but given an opportunity to live in america would sell thier own mother, yet continue to gripe about America and American society. Karen Richard, I understand and agree with you about Pres. Bush. He is one of the most good and gracious person in the world, as shown in the ways he help prepared and set things up for Pres. Elect Obama's team to be able to function fully on day 1 at White House. I have never seen that in this country, and it was unlike year 2000 either, when Pres. Bush first stepped into his office, and Clinton did not prepare a thing for him, which could have been the greatest mistake Clinton did. I read in local magazine that the last FBI Director in Clinton's era even threw away the computer on his desk on his first day of work, saying he needed none. And CIA were in need of major changes, but Clinton missed those facts, and I believe US intelligence were weak at that time. I believe they could have prevented 9/11 had they and Clinton did their job well. And so, when Pres. Bush took office, he had to face 9/11 and started to built the intelligent units to work in a more sophisticated way from scrap (?) Iraq is blessing in disguise - 25 millions liberated - and Guantanamo is a matter of necessity. So, for the liberals in the US to use this to attack one Bush, is so low of them. And the many American people who have been saying that Pres. Bush was the reason the world hates America, are simply paranoid. The fact is, the muslim world has been harbouring hatred on USA since a long time ago, for different reasons. Economic prowess, Israel, lack of communication, etc. I know this for sure because I grew up here. Even now, an American working as a contributor at "Gl-As" a year old Executive Magazine, has been trying hard to make Bush looks like a criminal. Imagine that. I personally feel sorry for Pres. Bush. He risked his reputation and Presidency to protect many ingrate people. But I believe still many others are thanking him silently. The women and Men in Afghanistan, the Kurdish in Iraq, and of course, the Iraqis who can feel the freedom of being a human being for the first time without Sadam Huseein. Well, as always, the extremists are the loudest. Tatu Fuad Maulani Reading all the sky-high praise about the "blameless" US President George W. Bush makes me want to puke. I wanted to write a letter to rebut all this nonsense about Pres. Bush's good meritorous deeds for the Iraqi and Afghan people without mentioning the hundreds of thousands of casualties among innocent people in Iraq and in Afghanistan. I heard some Iraqis say "Iraq under dictator Saddam was a helluva lot better than Iraq under the U.S. Some of the things I wanted to write about this Bush fellow are already written by Rod, an Australian from Sydney. Well-put, Rod. Silent Brain Whatever your point of view about Bush. I haven't heard anyone defend the point about him being a dummy! ___________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! sekarang memiliki alamat Email baru. Dapatkan nama yang selalu Anda inginkan di domain baru @ymail dan @rocketmail. Cepat sebelum diambil orang lain! http://mail.promotions.yahoo.com/newdomains/id/
