BUSH MAKES IT AWFUL HARD FOR PEOPLE TO LIKE AMERICANS-- ANYWHERE

In 1969, and again in 1971, I spent quite a bit of time in Iran, driving, slowly, from England to India for a couple years. Most of my time in Iran was spent in Tabriz, Tehran and, more than the other two, Mashad, near Afghanistan. Although I was there between the time the CIA undermined Iranian democracy with the overthrow of the popularly elected Mossadeq in 1953 and the time when the Iranians finally got rid of their blood-sucking, violently despotic American-backed monarchy in 1979, I found Iranians to be over-the-top when it came to natural hospitality and when it came to pro-American feelings.

The Iranians are a thoughtful and sophisticated people who have been playing world politics considerably longer than Americans (or Brits). Even after the CIA joined the British in destroying Iranian democracy-- for the sake of dominion over Iranian oil, of course-- Iranians still looked at America as a beacon and a model. Like people I met all over Asia, the Iranians had ambiguous feelings about our government-- as it transitioned from the champion of freedom and democracy Wilson and FDR had envisioned to... well to the hegemonic cat's paw of global corporate domination that it has become since. But when it came to the American spirit and lifestyle and when it came to American people... the Iranians couldn't have been more positive. I used to tell everyone that the most pro-American place I had ever visited was Iran.

More recently I was on my tenth visit to Morocco. I did a story for my travel blog called "Is Morocco A Safe Place to Visit?" where I went into why Americans are far, far more popular among Moroccans than are the former European colonizers and exploiters like France, Spain, Portugal, England and Germany. The Moroccan people I've met over the decades of travel there have made it clear in many ways why the like Americans more than Europeans. (They even will go so far as to give American tourists better prices for stuff-- and that is a BIG deal!!) The conclusion of the article, obviously, was that it is indeed a very safe place for Americans to visit. A month later I had to do an update-- a warning that Morocco might not be as safe as it has been, now that George W Bush has discovered it and was getting involved with the globalization of the torture business.

Today you may have had the misfortune of seeing Bush's smug, ugly puss on your TV screen as he lied and dissembled his way through another "press conference." An answer to a reporter's question made it clear that Bush has absolutely no intention of pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq. The televised press conference will make travel for Americans even more... uncomfortable and even dangerous and prohibitive anywhere in the Arab world... the Muslim world?... the whole fuckin' world?


REPORTER: Will there come a day, and I’m not asking you when — I’m not asking for a timetable — will there come a day when there will be no more American forces in Iraq?

BUSH: That, of course, is an objective, and that will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq.