BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Dear George

9 comments on Dear George

Dear George
: The Guardian asks 60 people what they want to say to Bush. Among the results:

: Harold Pinter: I’m sure you’ll be having a nice little tea party with your fellow war criminal, Tony Blair. Please wash the cucumber sandwiches down with a glass of blood, with my compliments.

: Frederick Forsyth: You will find yourself assailed on every hand by some pretty pretentious characters collectively known as the British left. They traditionally believe they have a monopoly on morality and that your recent actions preclude you from the club. You opposed and destroyed the world’s most blood-encrusted dictator. This is quite unforgivable.

I beg you to take no notice. The British left intermittently erupts like a pustule upon the buttock of a rather good country. Seventy years ago it opposed mobilisation against Adolf Hitler and worshipped the other genocide, Josef Stalin.

It has marched for Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov. It has slobbered over Ceausescu and Mugabe. It has demonstrated against everything and everyone American for a century. Broadly speaking, it hates your country first, mine second.

Eleven years ago something dreadful happened. Maggie was ousted, Ronald retired, the Berlin wall fell and Gorby abolished communism. All the left’s idols fell and its demons retired. For a decade there was nothing really to hate. But thank the Lord for his limitless mercy. Now they can applaud Saddam, Bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il… and hate a God-fearing Texan. So hallelujah and have a good time.

: Salam Pax: I am glad that someone is doing the cleaning up, and thank you for getting rid of that scary guy with the hideous moustache that we had for president. But I have to say that the advertisements you were dropping from your B52s before the bombs fell promised a much more efficient and speedy service. We are a bit disappointed. So would you please, pretty please, with sugar on top, get your act together and stop telling people you have Iraq all figured out when you are giving us the trial-and-error approach?

: Julie Burchill: George,

Great job, keep it up!

9 responses to “Dear George”

  1. charles austin Avatar
    charles austin

    Two things struck me about most of these entries. The first was how juvenile, angry, and disrespectful most of the entries were from professional writers and politicians. There was no attempt, nor any desire to be civil. Apparently, when everything is political, it is no longer possible to merely disagree about anything. The second was the almost total lack of historical perspective — especially on the part of the politicians.

  2. JK Avatar
    JK

    Juvenile, was what hit me for the most part.
    Staggering illustration of what happens to intellectuals in a country no longer responsible for any part of the wider world.
    I don’t know what has come over the staff of the Guardian this week. Between this and the opinion survey, they have painted a devastating portrait of the left activists they so often pander to.

  3. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    I thought Forsyth wasn’t pretentious at all. I thought he hit the nail on the head.
    And there goes Pinter again, trying to take the moral high ground in his usual Pavlovian way.

  4. Tori Avatar
    Tori

    I still like Salam. He has his moments, but then so does every blogger, and in the end, I still think he makes a fair amount of sense.

  5. Andrea Harris Avatar
    Andrea Harris

    Pinter couldn’t reach the moral curb, much less the moral highground. One gets the feeling he is the one who would like to drink a glass of blood every day, the old vampire. (Full disclosure: I have hated Harold Pinter ever since I had to study one of his awful plays — some sicky thing about an apartment — in high school.)

  6. KMK Avatar
    KMK

    Jeff- you forgot the link.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1087583,00.html

  7. Pele Avatar
    Pele

    “Staggering illustration of what happens to intellectuals in a country no longer responsible for any part of the wider world.”
    ????????????????????????????????????????????

  8. Andrew | BYTE BACK Avatar
    Andrew | BYTE BACK

    Intellectuals have to reach the masses by dropping to their level?
    True or false?

  9. Floyd McWilliams Avatar
    Floyd McWilliams

    When I read Pinter’s and Salam’s comments I thought this was a parody!