Now that the campaign for the presidential election is in full swing in the United States of America, it is to be wondered what new tricks George W. Bush will play to continue squatting the Oval Office. In the Novem-ber 2000 presidential election, Al Gore got 539 898 more votes than George W. Bush overall.

However, in the US electoral system, it is not the overall result, which decides the outcome of the election, but rather the number of electors one candidate obtains in each state. Under these conditions, the results in some key states, (Florida, for example), can be determining. Thus, by obtaining 537 more votes than Al Gore in Florida, Bush won (or rather bought) the presidential election.

The election in Florida, however, was a “coup d’état” though not necessarily of the type that occurs in so many countries. The “coup” began well before November 2000 when some ignominious plans were elaborated to eleminate the vote of innocent Afro-Americans and Hispanics since they are massively Democrats, over 90% according to surveys by various institutions.

As the law states that ex-felons cannot vote in Florida, Katherine Harris, Florida Secretary of State (in charge of the elections), with the blessing and collaboration of George W’s brother Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida, hired a Bush-friendly firm “Database Technologies” to remove the names of ex-felons from the voter rolls. In the process, thousands of citizens of African and Hispanic origin who had never committed a crime in their lives along with thousands of eligible voters, who had committed only misdemeanours like drunk driving, parking violations or littering, were deprived of their civil rights. By the way, Bush was arrested on three occasions, one for drunk driving, in 1976.

The conspiracy to eliminate the vote of innocent Afro-Americans and Hispanics comprised essentially the following strategies: depriving Florida’s citizens who had commited crimes in other states, served their time and had their rights restored of the elibility to vote; scrubbing off the voting rolls reformed felons eligible to vote in Florida; removing from the rolls people who had done nothing more than misdemeanours; stripping innocent citizens of their rights through manipulation of “matching criteria”.

For example, John Doe is a felon, then all people of African or Hispinic origin bearing the name of John Doe or something similar are removed from voting rolls; directing voters to polling stations where they were not registered; and assigning defective voting machines to regions where the poor predominated.

According to Michael More, author of Stupid white men and director of Farenheit 9 /11, some 173 000 registered voters in Florida were thus permanently removed from the voter rolls. Greg Palast, an investigative reporter estimated the number of voters wrongly barred from exercising their civil rights at over 90 000 in his book The best democracy money can buy. He also found out that Florida did not count 179 855 ballots! When we consider the fact that the presidential election was decided by just 537 votes in favour of George Bush, it is crystal clear that, had it not been rigged, Al Gore would have won by a very comfortable margin.

<B>Two big military missions</B>

The Bush side left no stone unturned to snatch victory from Al Gore. They had pawns everywhere, including the US Supreme Court, to safeguard their interest. Thus, at one point in the afternoon while the recount was on in Florida, Al Gore was catching up on Bush and one would tend to think that the Republican side was in a turmoil! Alas, such was never the case for just forty-five minutes later the US Supreme Court stopped the recount thus legitimising an illegal President. The justices of the Supreme Court comprised: Chief Justice William Rehnquist, nominated by Richard Nixon; Sandra Day O’Connor, nomited by Ronald Reagan; Anthony M. Kennedy, nominated by Ronald Reagan; Clarence Thomas, whose wife had been recruited by George Bush to serve in his impending administration; Antonin Scalia, whose son was a lawyer in the firm representing Bush before the Supreme Court; and the four dissenting justices, John Paul Stevens; David Souter, Stephen Breryer and Sander Saul.

Let us now cast a glance at the achievements of this man who was so unscrupulously ushered into the Oval Office. They are not outstanding except for a loathsome campaign of lies and a bitter string of failures. Following the 9/11 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, he sent his troops on two big military missions.

First, the Americans invaded Afghanistan which was hosting Osama Bin Laden believed to be the man behind the terrorist attacks. But they ostensibly failed in their mission to destroy the al Qaida network and capture bin Laden and Mullah Oomar.

Second, they have waged a war based upon lies against Iraq, pretending that the latter has weapons of mass destruction, thereby murdering hundreds of innocent children, women and elderly citizens along with Iraqui soldiers who had a cause to defend – the invasion of their country. To date, 1,205 coalition soldiers/workers, of which 1,066 Americans, have died without defending a noble cause except for the oil interest of Bush, Cheney and others in this unwarranted war.

All these massacres could have been avoided if consideration had been given to the report of the UN Chief weapons Inspector, Hans Blix, stating that there was no possibility that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s link with Osama Bin Laden concerning the September 2001 terrorist attacks was also put forward as a justification for toppling the former Iraqi regime. But, in this case also, a Senate Committee reported recently that there was no relationship between the two.

Having failed in this second mission too, Bush now talks of the Afganistan and Iraqi conflicts as “wars of liberation” aimed at establishing reform and democracy in these countries without taking heed of what he did in Florida. But, in the opinion of the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims throughout the world, Bush’s real motive for going to war is nothing more than a “conquest” aimed at extending “American hegomony” over the region and ultimately controlling “the oil resources”.

Anyway, for Osama Bin Laden, the Iraqi conflict came as a Christmas gift because, by invading a country regarded as the second holiest place in Islam, George W. Bush inadvertently validated bin Laden’s assertion that the US is waging a holy war against Muslims. This was the most stupid mistake committed by Bush. He failed to undertand that Bin Laden is not just a terrorist on a black list but that he is at the head of a well-structured organisation with a large number of cells spread over the world ready to detonate bombs indiscriminately in response to American aggression.

Finally, George W. Bush, the “squatter” in the White House has not turned out to be a complete failure for he has certainly succeeded in one mission : making the world unsafe for everybody.

<B>S. RAMSAMY</B>