A welcome change

Clearly, my letter, which pointed out some of the deep underlying failings of US society today, was to some extent hyperbole. The purpose of such exaggeration was to ensure that so accomplished a writer as Mr. Sobhan was not missing the forest for the trees. I now feel re-assured on this point and look forward to future explorations from his skilled pen of the whole bundle of contradictions which make up the great American polity.

Nevertheless I would like to record my surprise that Mr. Sobhan feels that George W. Bush's behaviour as President represents a radical departure from recent American tendencies. It is well known that Joe Lieberman, the Vice Presidential candidate, even after losing the 2000 election, was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the war on Iraq and played a major part in ensuring that the US Senate gave George Bush blanket war-making powers. In this respect Lieberman was uncritically advancing the very same Zionist agenda as the so-called neo-cons, such as Wolfowitz, who had been placed in key decision-making positions by the Republican Administration. Is there any reason to suppose that if Lieberman had actually been elected Vice-President under Gore he would have behaved very differently when it came to making war on Iraq, against all good sense and against the real interests of the American people?

As for the upcoming Presidential election it seems to me that only Howard Dean is a politician of integrity who represents alternative currents of US opinion, the right-thinking currents in my view. Wesley Clark by contrast, despite his paper credentials, seems a lightweight figure and one suspects his candidacy may be promoted precisely in order to derail the anti-establishment wave that has propelled Howard Dean to prominence. I look forward with interest to Mr. Zafar Sobhan's analysis in future.