Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong - Democratic Underground

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Fri May-19-06 12:25 PM
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Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong

Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong
by Jim Wallis

(excerpt)

AFTER WHAT’S happened around God’s Politics elsewhere, I wasn’t surprised by the reception in Australia, and again I was very encouraged. What most struck me were the attitudes of Australians toward the United States—and how much that has changed since I last was there. Don’t get me wrong, Australians generally like Americans and that hasn’t changed. But the level of alienation, anger, and disbelief so many people now feel toward American policies was extraordinary. George Bush’s war in Iraq generates great emotional opposition from ordinary Australians, despite Prime Minister John Howard’s characteristic acquiescence to U.S. war policy. They can’t understand how the deception and manipulation that led to war were allowed to stand. They can’t comprehend how President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld continue despite the disaster of Iraq. They can’t stomach Americans involved in torture, and not holding those in authority responsible for it. And they are increasingly opposed to the presence of Australian troops in Iraq—a recent poll in the country found 59 percent of Australians opposed, the highest to date. The week I returned to the U.S., Australia suffered its first casualty in the war, which will certainly drive the opposition even higher.

They think America is losing its sanity and its soul with its “war on terrorism.” And how can this administration ignore the consensus of the world on global warming, they wonder? And how can the U.S. now threaten to attack Iran, perhaps even with nuclear weapons? What can the U.S. officials be thinking? I was continually asked. On one of the leading evening news shows, I was asked what I thought of these two “fundamentalists” (Bush and Iran’s President Ahmadinejad) squaring off, with nuclear weapons in the balance. I replied that it should be a very frightening prospect for all of the world’s people.

The profound disaffection with their old American friend wasn’t limited to the left wing of Australia. My tour was sponsored by World Vision Australia, and I was joined the whole way by its director, Tim Costello—a clear and public voice of prophetic conscience in his own nation. The way an imperial and increasingly messianic American foreign policy has gotten associated with Christian faith around the world is almost incomprehensible—and terribly embarrassing to the mainstream Australian Christians with whom I spoke.

Many Australians are deeply disillusioned with the policies and priorities of the Bush administration. They think something has gone terribly wrong in America. Being with them for Easter, on the other side of the world, made me realize again how much they are right. And I’m sure my Australian friends would have shuddered, once more, when George Bush reminded us last week that he is the “decider” in America and, by implication, in the world. Perhaps it’s time for Americans to confront the question of how those who have taken our nation down this disastrous path can be removed from power.

It’s hard to keep being reminded of how crazy and dangerous so many people around the world think our country has become.

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=Soj0606&article=060651