"Anti-Bushism"

Quite a few of you have written to me pointing out this article on Yahoo! about the rise of "Anti-Bushism" in the UK:

[A]fter wars in Afghanistan and Iraq where British and Americans fought side by side, [American expats] face a wave not of anti-Americanism but anti-Bushism.

Speaking for myself, it never takes very long for someone to figure out that I'm not Bush's biggest fan, and, aside from the odd drunk or Little Englander, most of the non-Americans I run into are willing to be reasonable about things.

I'm interested to know, though, what are your experiences? Do you get collared just because you're American, and forced to apologize for your country?

Comments

[Bob Richard]

I continue to be amazed at (and grateful for!) the way in which Europeans are willing to distinguish between America and our nightmare President during these dark days.
And now, surely, it is our responsibility to stand up and be counted as proud Americans who resist these atrocities being committed in our name.
Thanks very much for forming this group (which I first heard about tonight on Channel 4 News). I'll be there on Thursday.

[Linda Butler]

It's not just the war, its everything they do.

Read Paul Krugman in the New York Times. Read Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose in their book, Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America. Read Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propoganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth, by Joe Conason. Read Dworkin, a much-respected Constitional expert featured in the New York Review of Books. (Just some of the continuing and current astute studies on the Bush tragedy and its affects).

Read them and weep. Then get marching and active in removing them from government and replacing them with Americans we can be proud of.

See you next week in London--
Another Angry American Against Bush

[Sarah Forrester]

I'm very quick to point out that I think Bush is an idiot, so I haven't been hassled at all for being American. Most of the criticism about the U.S. that people have confronted me with, I've agreed with.

See you at Sunday's planning meeting!

[Courtney]

As the march next week is being organised by Stop the War, it's inevitable that it is being billed as an anti-war march. Good, but I think we as a group should make it clear that our problems with Bush are wider than that, particularly if we want to resonate within the US. Every opportunity we should point out all of the problems - Guantanomo, civil rights violations, the environment, Halliburton, CIA-agent exposing, not handing over pre-9/11 briefings, 3.3 million job losses, the International Criminal Court, steel tariffs (which have caused more job losses than they have protected), etc, etc.

I think we could reach more people if we didn't solely concentrate on Iraq (especially as it leaves us exposed to "its already happened" arguments).

The man and his cronies have a plethora of other faults to choose from...

[Tom Jackson]

I won't be able to make it to London for the Bush protest but I would like to say THANK YOU to all of you who do. This protest will provide an important wakeup call to the average American who is unaware how the rest of the world perceives Bush's actions.
- Indianapolis, Indiana

[abdul]

I have been living in Sweden for over a year and initially all the complaints focused on Bush and our "in-your-face" cultural intrusions. In the run-up to the war, however, I noticed a distinct shift as people started to criticize all Americans, even the one's (like me) who disliked what Bush was doing. I think a lot of it had to do with the whole Old Europe thing and our behavior back home. In the last few months, the criticizm has gone back to mostly just on Bush.

[Dirk Powers]

It's all very rabbinical, biblical, judeo-christian. Both modern Babylon, N.Y. (WTC) and ancient babylon (Baghdad) fell in the space of one hour. The neandertals (the rabbis w/big heads)prophesied the fall of babylon in the space of one hour and they work to fulfill their prophecy. Our people are so confused (due to down breeding) that they can't figure out which end is up. You might check out my dumb and lousy website at: http://home.earthlink.net/~ezcircut/