Yeah, What He Said. Hang On ...

Former Australian Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch, "Addressing an exclusive black-tie Australian American Association dinner in Sydney, Mr Murdoch urged Australians to resist and reject the hostile anti-American sentiment that has gripped much of Europe." (Murdoch urges Aust, US to maintain strong relations)

We, along with the rest of planet Earth, have had to endure George W. Bush's nightmare of a presidency for six long and painful years (and unless he does an honourable thing we have two more years to endure). So excuse us if we feel a bit bitter to Dubya and his band of global havoc-wreakers. I think Uncle Rupert is over-generalising by labelling anti-Bushism in Europe as anti-Americanism. I'm pretty sure that the feeling in the streets of Europe (and Australia) is not the same type of anti-American feeling harboured by terrorists. If it were, then we'd all be in real trouble.

Uncle Rupert does concede:
"But wars end. Administrations come and go. The Australian people must not allow their perfectly legitimate doubts about one policy or one American administration to cloud their long-term judgment."

Since he also concedes that the Iraq War remains "unpopular" in Australia, is he inferring that we are right to consider the War an unmitigated disaster? If so, I bet John W. Howard was squirming in his seat at that exclusive black-tie dinner.

While on the subject of anti-Bushism, there seems to be a lot of it inside the United States as well ...

Misplaced loyalty to a diminished leader

In the US, anti-Bushism is now downright patriotic. Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi has denounced the President as shallow, deceitful, dangerous and incompetent (sound familiar?). Many widely respected conservatives were actively barracking for the Democrats last week. These included veteran pundit George F. Will, who reckons the Republicans got off relatively lightly "for the party that has presided over what is arguably the worst foreign-policy disaster in US history".

[Matt Price, The Australian]

PS How ironic that George W. Bush finally goes to Vietnam, albeit to attend APEC as the "Leader of the Free World", just as his Iraq War looks set to eclipse the Vietnam War as the US's biggest foreign policy disaster ever.