Iraq War: John le Carré has harsh words for Bush and Blair

British author John le Carré has not been happy about the Bush administration and the Iraq War: Ein verhasster, lügenhafter, rücksichtsloser Präsident [A hated, lying, reckless president] Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich) 15.10.04.  I haven't found an English translation.  [10/20/04 note: see below.] But as the title suggests, the writer isn't happy with Bush.

But Le Carré does see one reason for people to vote for Bush:

There is possibly one good reason - just this one - to re-elect [sic] George W. Bush: simply to force him to live with the results of his terrible policy and for him to have the consequences of his own lies. ...

Probably never in history was an American President so hated in countries worldwide as George W. Bush. ...

But hated above all, because he misused the fight against terrorism to bring an illegal war - and anarchy - onto a country that, like many too many countires in the world, suffered under a terrible tyranny, but had no complicity at all in the occurrences of September 11.

A country that possessed no weapons of mass destruction and that up until then had nothing to do with terrorism - except as an ally of the United States in a dirty war against Iran.

Is your president really a great warlord, only because he allowed himself to be manipulated by a handful of blind ideologues?  Or is, for example, Tony Blair a great warlord because he handed over British troops, his foreign policy and, on top of everything, the internal security of Great Britain to one and the same brainless adventure?

Osama bin Laden, he says, gave Bush the justification for a war that had been planned even before the 9/11 attacks.  Iraq didn't have anything to do with those attacks.  "But Iraq paid the price.  The young American soldiers paid the price.  The young British soldiers paid the price.  And all because our politicians lied to us."

But Le Carré reminds us Americans that we're not alone.  "You should also know that we in England will share your nightmare as long as we have Tony Blair, who put out the same lies as George W. Bush."

A couple of months before the Iraq War began, Le Carré wrote The United States of America has gone mad Times of London 01/15/03. 

The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.

The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible. Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place; Enron; its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich; its reckless disregard for the world’s poor, the ecology and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties. They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions. ...

To be a member of the team you must also believe in Absolute Good and Absolute Evil, and Bush, with a lot of help from his friends, family and God, is there to tell us which is which.

[Update 10/20/04.  What appears to be the same column has now been published in the Los Angeles Times 10/20/04 as "If Le Carré Could Vote" and reproduced at CommonDreams.org.  Presumably, the article was orginally written in English, so I'm reproducing below the corresponding passages I translated from the German above.]

Maybe there's one good reason — just one — for reelecting [sic] George W. Bush, and that's to force him to live with the consequences of his appalling actions and answer for his own lies ...

Probably no American president in history has been so universally hated abroad as Bush ... above all for misusing the cause of anti-terrorism in order to unleash an illegal war — and now anarchy — upon a country that like too many others around the world was suffering under a hideous dictatorship but had no hand in the events of 9/11, no weapons of mass destruction and no record of terrorism except as an ally of the United States in a dirty war against Iran.

Is your president a great war leader because he allowed himself to be manipulated by a handful of deluded ideologues? Is Tony Blair, my prime minister, a great war leader because he committed Britain's troops, foreign policy and domestic security to the same harebrained adventure? ...

The Iraq war was planned long before 9/11. Osama bin Laden provided the excuse. Iraq paid the price. American kids paid the price. British kids paid the price. Our politicians lied to us. ...

Here in Britain, for as long as we have Tony Blair singing the same lies as George W. Bush, your nightmares will be ours.