Guardian: While we have your attention, Mr President... [MUST READ!!!!]

[grytpype]

While we have your attention, Mr President...

It's not often that we get the chance to speak directly to the most powerful man in the world. So as George Bush lands in Britain for his first state visit, we asked 60 Brits and Americans to make the most of it

...

much much more



http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1087583,00.html

[roguevalley]

1. the guardian is the best newspaper in the world.

[Hieronymus]

3. Great article

:grr:

[PegThirteen]

5. Then this you'll like. Guardian/ICM poll: Brits welcome Bush

Alan Travis and David Gow
Tuesday November 18, 2003
The Guardian
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1087545,00.html

Protests begin but majority backs Bush visit as support for war surges


A majority of Labour voters welcome President George Bush's state visit to Britain which starts today, according to November's Guardian/ICM opinion poll.

The survey shows that public opinion in Britain is overwhelmingly pro-American with 62% of voters believing that the US is "generally speaking a force for good, not evil, in the world". It explodes the conventional political wisdom at Westminster that Mr Bush's visit will prove damaging to Tony Blair. Only 15% of British voters agree with the idea that America is the "evil empire" in the world.

Mr Blair insisted last night that he had made the right decision in inviting Mr Bush to Britain as an unprecedented security operation got under way to prepare for his arrival today. More than 14,000 police officers at a cost of £5m will be on duty during the four-day visit, with tens of thousands of anti-war protesters expected to take to the streets.

The ICM poll also uncovers a surge in pro-war sentiment in the past two months as suicide bombers have stepped up their attacks on western targets and troops in Iraq. Opposition to the war has slumped by 12 points since September to only 41% of all voters. At the same time those who believe the war was justified has jumped 9 points to 47% of voters.

This swing in the mood of British voters is echoed in the poll's finding that two-thirds of voters believe British and American troops should not pull out of Iraq now but instead stay until the situation is "more stable".

It also may explain the beginnings of a recovery in Tony Blair's personal ratings in this month's Guardian poll. He still remains an unpopular prime minister with 52% unhappy with the job he is doing, compared with 40% who say they are satisfied with his performance. But the prime minister's net popularity rating of minus 12 points is a significant improvement over last month's net rating of minus 18 points.

The detailed results of the poll show that more people - 43% - say they welcome George Bush's arrival in Britain than the 36% who say they would prefer he did not come.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi PegThirteen!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[RainDog]

10. Didn't someone already actually read that poll

and the way it was stated was something like "do you believe the United States (not Bush, who is, after all, an illegal squatter in the White House) generally a force for evil or for good.

That's not the same as saying they support Bush, is it?

I wished they'd asked the question "Do you think George Bush is a better or worse president than Bill Clinton."

Or even better..."Do you think George Bush understands the newspaper articles which are summarized and fed to him each day by the Cheney gang?"

whatever.

A MILLION people in the UK came out to march against the invasion of Iraq in February before the March invasion. They knew, as we all knew, that Bush was lying his ass off and destroying any so-called "moral authority" by the invasion of Iraq, which, btw, has resulted in more innocent Iraqi civilian deaths than Saddam perpetrated during his entire regime.

So, does that make Bush worse than Saddam?

[Paschall]

2. Pinter doesn't waste any words

Wow!

[Manix]

4. Good stuff!!!

[Demonaut]

6. Frederick Forsyth sucks

Or better yet his books suck, I can't believe the content of his letter...He worshipped Mag Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, calls those that oppose the war on the side of the likes of Stalin, Hitler and of course Saddam. What a friggen moron. I always thought his books were poorly written and now I know why, he does'nt research the material, he ignores historical facts......Now i'm pissed.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I can certainly believe his letter

I guessed it was him writing it after 2 paragraphs. He's always contemptuously dismissive of anyone who doesn't agree with him, states his opinions as facts, and generally comes across as just to the left of fascist. The BBC used to use him as a right wing commentator/iconoclast (with Will Self doing the same for the left wing) but while Self was interesting, argued his points properly, and would criticise left wingers too when he felt like it (with a good argument), Forsyth just pined for Maggie and her authoritarian ways. They took them both off (though it was only Forsyth that whined about being silenced).

[T_i_B]

8. Salam Pax's comments are great

But the most powerful comments belong to Sebastian Faulks of all people.

Pearl Harbor and the Twin Towers were attacks to which you responded with appropriate force. Saddam Hussein, however, had neither the means nor the motive to attack you. Nor did he supply others. None of the reasons you offered for invading Iraq - taken singly or jointly - stood up to moral or strategic scrutiny. This was clear to even those of us well disposed towards America. We were at first puzzled ("I'm sure they know something we don't, they're just not allowed to tell us"); then, as it became apparent that you knew nothing, we became unhappy.

What we hated was the way you failed to understand the inheritance of the west. It was not a birthright of absolute superiority, but it was the best thing we had; it was something that went, as Mr Blair put it, to the "heart of our credibility as a nation". And this credibility, for which so many millions died - you have let it run through your hands. And in doing so, you allowed a British prime minister to be morally finessed by Jacques Chirac... Dear God, that it should come to that.