Mister Bush, do feel free to use this

[gerbie]

It took a while before we learned what we did wrong. It took a big attack, in which thousands of innocent lives have been lost, before we realised that the way we are dealing with the rest of the world was wrong. I am very sorry that this has had to happen. From here there are two possible options. A third world war or a continuation of what we have been doing over the last decade, a cold war against everything we Americans considered wrong. It would make the cold war look like a fight in kindergarten. We shall take none of these options. As a true Christian, we will turn the other cheek. The only way this cycle can be stopped as by not reacting. No retaliation, no attacks on possible suspects. I shall repeat this, read my lips, NO RETALIATION.

It is time for us to admit that we had this one coming. Fifty years of interfering everywhere in the world whenever it suited us has come to a bloody final. Now we see what we have done in Korea and Vietnam. In Cuba and the Dominican Republic. In Haiti and Guatemala. In Nicaragua and Chile. In Panama and Somalia. And in dozens of other countries. Thousands of innocent Americans have become the victim of an idiot who wanted us to know what we did wrong. Until now we knew, but thought we could get away with it. We couldn't.

From now on we shall do whatever is necessary to help all those families in this tragedy. But not only the thousands who have died in the last 24 hours, but also those thousands who died in the last 50 years, because we considered our position in the world more important than the lives of individuals. The whole budget from defence will go to welfare, social benefits or third world development. We will finally pay off our billions of debt to the UN. We well recognise the UN as the true world power, the voice of the people of the world. We will do as the majority wants us to. We shall propose the abolishment of veto's for countries who happen to have too much power.

Finally I shall resign from my position as President of the United States of America. We will soon have new elections in which every vote is counted, in which democracy will really work. Until then I shall hand over the power to the senate.

Let our thoughts be with the ones who have lost their lives. Thank you for your attention, God bless America and peace on earth!

Comments

[jellyrose.livejournal.com]

Wow.. I just have no words but wow.

[thegreenquetzal.livejournal.com]

i agree with you. retaliation..will just make everyting worse...and kill even more innocent people..

this is just so awful..

[kita.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. What happened to the innocent civilians yesterday was a tragedy, but thousands of innocent civilians have been killed all over the world thanks to the US or due to US intervention.

The cycle must be broken. If only the government had your outlook...

[(Anonymous)]

Applause...
...but there is no way we'll ever hear wise words like that coming out of Bush's mouth :-(

/ToHell, Sweden

[mattrix.livejournal.com]

Why not say 90 years of "interfering everywhere in the world"??? There's a distinct possibility you would not have been born if not for US meddling in European wars.

We well recognise the UN as the true world power, the voice of the people of the world. We will do as the majority wants us to. We shall propose the abolishment of veto's for countries who happen to have too much power. ... which gives the UN too much power. I don't remember too many times when the UN agreed on anything. And does the UN represent the entire world, every nation, every point of view??

Heck, if you want a single world government, when are we going to have a house-of-representatives type UN body which is based on population?

UN ambassadors aren't taken from the streets of cities .... they're generally well-connected people, like all politicians. I don't see how your "speech" would markedly improve jack-doodley.

I am not in favor of retalliation simply because whereas before we had individuals who had a grievance against the United States that may be without sufficient basis, for the US to make good on its recent words, we'd give people plenty more reason to hate the US. That is, I forsee more problems if the US steps up and slaps people around. For this is the same sort of meddling that your speech was apologizing for.

But if you are not willing to fight and you have those who are, how do you expect to prevail?

What is the just thing to do in a case like this? Say the hijackers had magically survived? What would be done with them in a "civilized" country such as yours?

For that matter, what would be done with a serial killer in your justice system?

[offencetaken.livejournal.com]

i, as a true christian, wish i could agree with you, but.. They're professed mission is to not stop until Israel is in the sea. Israel is our allies and they will not stop attacking us or attempting to (like theyve been doing since Israel became a seperate state) until we stop giving Israel Help, which i think would be a horrable thing to do. we have to retaliate.. but i dont agree with the war method. i dont want a full sized war.. we just need to take out this group.. there will never be peace in the middle east because the muslim religion preaches conversion by the sword... but this will help.. we can not just look away. we have to be big brother.. theyr our family

[(Anonymous)]

It really disturbs me that touchie feelie, UTNE Reader, tree hugging plankton like you are responsible for teaching our children. Get your head out of Richard Gere's ass a take a look at what's going around. I can't believe you've fallen for the "blame the victim" bullshit and want to accept this a 'payback' for US foreign policy 'sins'. They didn't attack the USA because the CIA and United Fruit Company took over Guatamala in the Fifties. Osama Bin Manson want Helter Skelter and we're gonna give him 22 megatons worth if we have to hijack a Russian nuke bound for Iraq to do it. Nuke the fuckers till they glow!

And don't waste your time with your 'laundry list' unless you're prepared to match list with every nation that's ever existed in the history of this rotten planet. Why don't we draw up that list and have the worst country get nuked? But we'd also have to list the contributions each country made to the betterment of the world as well.

I'm sick and fucking tired of the 'US can do no right' double standard when it comes to world affairs. Remember the standards the world holds us to - and doesn't even pretend to live up to - were created by us and -whether you want to believe it or not - we do ou r damndest to honor. The US has been looked on as'daddy's wallet' for far too long in this guilt trip happy world.

[(Anonymous)]

I've long ago given up on reasoning with conservatives as they're just too bigoted and closed minded. The same applies ot you liberals as well...

[frannywentzel.livejournal.com]

It slays me when I hear other Europeans sniff their noses at the US and US policies. I am in freedom thanks to their willingness to stand at the Brandenburg gate till hell froze over or till the East Germans fell.

If you think the Americans are so bad try having the Russians in your house. After the war the Russians looted us down to the lightbulbs in the bathroom. When the Russians wanted Berlin for themselves the Americans dropped not bombs but candy food and coal and broke the back of Russian starvation tactics.

When the Russians built a wall the Americans didn't run even when your European peaceniks demanded unilateral disarmament.

You 'civilised' Western Europeans were the first to clamour for US action during the genocides of Jugoslavia and the first to damn America when she finally did anything - like always.

The first movie I ever saw about US was 'Roger & Me' about the layoff at Flint Michigan. Honneker made damn sure we saw all that was wrong in US. But I saw what was right. 'Roger & Me' was made by an American and shown in America and was big hit. Micheal Moore makes good money criticising US - enough not to have to sell rabbits by the roadside. Try finding a similar film made in DDR by and for DDR.

America was raped and left for dead last week. There can be no 'blaming the victim' this time.

By the way, thanks for doing such a great job hiding Anne Frank.

just so you know...

[olivethomas.livejournal.com]

'Finally I shall resign from my position as President of the United States of America. We will soon have new elections in which every vote is counted, in which democracy will really work. Until then I shall hand over the power to the senate.'

Accoring to the constitution should the President resign the Vice-President takes over. The line of succesion then goes to the Speaker to the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate, then to the cabinet positions in the following order Secretary of State, Treasury, Defense, Attorney General, Sec'y of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health & Human Services, Housing & Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education and Veterans Affairs.

There is no provision in the Constitution for the President the call new Elections as we don't use the European Parlimentary system that puts the party (or coalition) that wins the general election in direct control of the executive branch.

After the Kennedy assassination an amendment was passed to allow the President to appoint a Vice-President should the office happen to be unfilled by death or resignation or the Vice Presidents accession to President. When Nixon's VP Spiro Agnew was forced to resign, Gerald Ford was appointed to take his place. When Nixon resigned Ford became the first unelected president in US history.

A lot of peopl don't like the Electoral College system but it was enacted for several reasons - the first of with was that the founding fathers never expected the US to have just a two party system, they figured on several candidates and had planned for that eventuality. Secondly they had wanted to make sure every state or at least region counted in the election and that the candidate didn't just concentrate their efforts on a couple of states. Without an electoral college system a candidate could easily win an election with the votes of a few big cities.

As bad as the fiasco in Florida was, the system worked even when there wasn't much in the way of legal or historical precedent to go on. (the last president to win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote was in the 1800s) Much of this had to be improvised on the spot, but it was in the open for all to see. And nobody had to get the support of the Army like in many countries. Power was passed more or less without incedent.