Bush’s Victory , And A Nagging Question

Many Americans saw Bush as a leader who would protect them from terrorism. Thus, the Republicans scored a great victory. Yet many other Americans and people in other parts of the world thought that Bush’s violent policies would fail. We’ll see whether Bush’s victory will make the US president and his hawks more aggressive or make them see common sense. No doubt that Bush’s victory is in no way good for the world. One cannot help but worry about humanity when Bush is in office, because his policies can neither end terrorism, nor lead to peace in the Middle East. Bush ruined everything that his predecessor Bill Clinton did over eight years for a positive US image internationally.

Even people who favor the war in Iraq accept that the US is in a quagmire there. Over 1,100 American soldiers have been killed. Americans have killed 100,000 Iraqi civilians. What was Bush’s justification? ‘Saddam poses a threat to the US because Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.’ These justifications proved wrong. What will happen now? Iraq will become an even greater nightmare for the US. What will the future of the region be if Bush leaves Iraq in such chaos?

Looking at the US elections from the Turkish angle, the situation is clear: US policies about Turkey wouldn’t have changed much even if Kerry had been elected. In fact Kerry’s policies on Cyprus and the Armenian question weren’t clear, and this could have caused some problems. Thus, in the short term, Bush’s victory is good for Turkey. But in the long run, there’s no doubt that Bush’s violent policies will also harm Turkey. In the future the US will have to leave Iraq in chaos and this will cause trouble for Turkey and other countries in the region. Whatever we say, the world will have to live with Bush for four more years. The election is over, but this question still nags me. Would Bush have won if Hillary Clinton had been the Democrats’ candidate instead of Kerry?”