Letters to the Editor
maureenodonnell
Published Letters: 590 Editor's Choice: 5
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The 6th President of the U.S., John Quincy Adams, warned America not to go abroad "in search of monsters to destroy"
[Read the article: Tucker Carlson unintentionally reveals the role of the American press]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What a wise man he must have been! For a very long time the United States had been an inspiration to the world,except for the iniquity of slavery which was something for the American people to reconcile with their ideals of freedom. However, there might have been no French Revolution had there not been the American revolt against arbitrary power and the effect of both revolutions spread through Europe. We could say that it is still a work-in-progress. It's just a coincidence that the incumbent in the White House shares the same first name with King George 111, the English monarch against whose oppressive rule the colonists rebelled but I've a cloudy memory of some oracle claiming that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. When I saw Carol Coleman, the Irish reporter on YouTube, being given a large dose of condescension by President George W. Bush it was indeed farcical as he told her that the Irish didn't understand "American values". He then went into the soft-soap routine about the Irish and America but most of us are all grown-up over here now. He was just containing his temper that a whippersnapper like Ms.Coleman should have the nerve to ask for explanations and there was some farce in that. Neverteless, it's tragedy that is
uppermost when you have to face the reality that American foreign policy has been responsible for the deaths and maiming of untold numbers of people in Iraq and the destruction of a country which, despite Saddam Hussein's despotism, had excellent hospitals and healthcare, a modern infrastructure, was reasonably secular.
I don't think that the whole world, especially the anglophone one for obvious reasons, has ever watched an American Presidential electionwith quite so much trepidation. The American people deserve so much better but, I, personally, would be less seduced by novelty than by sheer grit, intelligence and the determination to restore your international reputation as well as helping your ailing economy to recover. Your media appears to be a travesty of what it should be but I'm glad that the Brits (and we) have Jeremy Paxman on this side of the Atlantic. We need him.
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So, Tucker Carlson was born in the late Sixties and wears a bow-tie!
[Read the article: Tucker Carlson unintentionally reveals the role of the American press]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Does he wear spats as well, sport an ivory-handled Malacca cane or any other poncey/arty accoutrements? Just having a laugh but the words of an almost forgotten nursery rhyme xome to mind:
"little Tommy Tucker sang for his supper.
What shall we give him but brown bread and butter".
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Peter Joshua, I'm a Jack the Ripper supporter but that doesn't colour my views about his crimes against women.
[Read the article: Tucker Carlson unintentionally reveals the role of the American press]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's a bit of a giggle when people feel the need to tell the forum who they are supporting and then go on to show their technicoloured dream-coat. What's all this stuff along the lines "I'm a centenarian who's on the look-out for a toy-boy and I was going to vote for X (honestly, truly, fervently) but now after hearing/reading this/that I must tell you all that I really fancy Y instead, knowing that everybody will be impressed".
Samantha Power was given a lot of publicity not because she was promoting her book on the diplomat, De Mello, but because she was represented as a senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama. I saw her interviewed twice, once on BBC Newsnight by the sainted Jeremy and then, more briefly, by Brian Dobson on Irish (RTE) news. Obviously she was doing the rounds of the media circuit and the interviewers wanted to know about Obama's policies. She dropped clangers all around the place, not only with the print media but also on television. Her "monster" name-calling showed a total lack of sophistication, especially because of all the talk about her brilliance etc. etc. and she didn't actually accuse Hillary Clinton of being one of the "monsters" responsible for the genocide in Rwanda, involving the Hutu and the Tutsi who did really monstrous things to each other. What really caused the plug to be pulled on her, leading to her resignation, was the fact that she went on tv and admitted that any promises Senator Obama is making about the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq are merely hypothetical and will be reliant on circmstances as they develop. "Perchance to dream; aye, there's the rub".