Trouble for us all From Morning Star

GEORGE W Bush’s re-election to the White House spells trouble not only for working people in the US but for the rest of the world.

His triumph represents victory not only for the unwholesome alliance of queer-bashers and misogynists that makes up the Christian right but also for the military-industrial complex, including the oil lobby.

One of the few clear-cut differences between Mr Bush and its Democratic challenger John Kerry was that Mr Kerry had pledged to reverse the president’s substantial tax cuts for the seriously rich.

On too many questions, Mr Kerry appeared as little more than a nit-picker, having accepted the essential arguments behind Bush administration policies.

There was too much truth in the Bush-camp allegations of Kerry 'flip-flopping' over the invasion of Iraq, first backing it and then criticising it and so on.

This approach was virtually inevitable in light of the Democratic Party establishment’s bipartisan approach to the war and its determination to dump committed anti-war candidate and early front-runner in the primaries, Howard Dean.

Mr Dean was ditched after an unbelievable outbreak of collective 'wisdom' manifested itself among establishment media commentators that the anti-war candidate had shown himself unworthy and unelectable because his primary roar of triumph had turned into a scream or shriek.

This co-ordinated character assassination was directed by Democratic Party bosses whose opposition to President Bush is marginal rather than principled.

They wanted a safe pair of hands and an establishment figure who would not scare the big-business contributors to the party.

It was this same fixation with respectability that led top Democrats to distance themselves from film-maker Michael Moore, whose films and books have galvanised mass hostility to the White House war criminal and his sleazy cronies.

The Democrat top brass are so enmeshed with the mawkish religiosity and flag-wagging pseudo-patriotism evinced by the Bush camp that they could neither attack these concepts nor take them over.

To defeat the far-right represented by President Bush, the Democrats need to develop sharper policies and, in arguing them, to emulate the level of enthusiasm and aggression that sees top Republicans such as Arnold Schwarzenegger refer routinely to his party’s opponents as 'baby-killers' and tools of global terrorism.

The US president has won an election, but his record has not been a success.

He has turned his country’s largest ever budget surplus into its largest deficit. He has bogged its armed forces down in a war without a clear exit strategy. And he is faced with a host of problems related to health insurance, unemployment and falling living standards for working people.

Capitalism’s problems won’t be solved by his supposedly close personal relationship with God or the inanities he uttered during his election campaign, but he and the forces he represents will be at their most dangerous when he is at bay.

The forces for progress and peace have been warned and will need to be on their guard, both in the US and overseas.



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The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

US Elections & India’s Stand The re-election of George Bush as President of the United States of America portends a continuation of the aggressive and unilateralist approach to international relations. In the past four years, the Bush administration had waged war on the sovereign State of Iraq and occupied it. It posted US military forces around the world in the name of fighting global terrorism. Neither did Iraq possess weapons of mass destruction nor was it linked to the Al Qaeda. The United States under the Bush presidency has shown contempt for the United Nations and international laws.

In the present situation, all efforts must be made to check the harmful course adopted by the Bush administration. The relations between India and the United States should be governed by mutual interest and equality. The fight against terrorism which is of direct relevance to our country cannot be a tool for the hegemonistic ambitions of the US.

In this context, some of the views expressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his letter congratulating President Bush cause concern. To state that the global war against terrorism benefited enormously from Bush’s steadfast resolve and leadership is contrary to all facts and evidence. It can be validly asked whether terrorism has been eliminated or strengthened by Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

There is a widespread consensus in India that we should not subscribe to Bush’s self-serving war on terrorism. To assert, therefore, that we are 'partners against terrorism' without qualification, is unwise.

The call for 'a larger and more ambitious agenda for broader strategic cooperation' has been given without looking carefully at the policy stances which will adopted by the second Bush administration. It would be prudent for the advisers to the Prime Minister to base themselves on the foreign policy formulations contained in the Common Minimum Programme.



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