US Elections - We've Done A Bit Of A "Whoopsie"

I've been desperately trying to avoid mentioning the US elections.

Normally, as regular readers will know, I can't stop blogging about every damned place in the world except the one I represent politically. Someone only needs to sneeze in Caracas or cough in Stockholm and my fingers are at it, pumping away with the geo-political thoughts of Chairman Akehurst.

Today, to be honest, I'm more inclined to discuss British political opinion polls, Trotskyist newspapers and the thoughts of NEC members about Party Conference. Obviously these are a long way from the serious politics of the day, so I'll just have to fight the temptation to hide behind trivia and address the real issue. I'll leave my doppelganger to rabbit on about these parochial issues, in his usual fashion, on a day when the most powerful nation in the world goes to the polls.

So... under normal circumstances the position would be very simple. I know it's been a long time now, but the model used to be a very simple one:

Conservative = Republican
Labour = Democrat

That, of course, was before The Great Leader threw his political weight behind George Bush in support for all good things American, including the war against terrorism and in particular the war in Iraq.


At the time, backing George seemed like a good idea to me. Like Tony, I genuinely believed that WMD capable of damaging Britain and our close allies existed and were about to be deployed by Saddam.

I resent the constant assertions by Tories, LibDems and Trotskyists that the Prime Minister in some way misled the House. While the war on terrorism goes on - and former CIA director James Woolsey has said that it might last as long as the Cold War - my support for America is unconditional and not hedged around with neat formulations and semantics.

Now we have the strange political situation where the Democrats are likely to take back the House of Representatives and could even take control of the Senate, while campaigning on a platform of early withdrawal from Iraq. And George Bush is telling Iraquis not to worry about their future as he, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief, will continue the military offensive regardless of the wishes of both houses of the US elected government.

So Labour now finds itself in the position of backing a dictatorial President in a military campaign against the political will of his people.

Political opportunists will, no doubt, seize on the supposed irony of this situation and the more extreme of them will suggest analogies between Bush and Saddam. I still back Tony to the hilt, but I must admit things are beginning to feel a bit like having dug oneself into a hole so deep that the light is fading overhead.

It seems that we've done a bit of a "whoopsie". Betty... Betty... Oh hell, sorry, I mean Linda.