Thoughts from London

Democracy Bushwhacked by its torchbearers
What supreme irony. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair want to bring western-style democracy to Iraq. That means the right of association, of assembly and of dissent.

Never mind that this was not the reason why they went to war against Iraq. Since the weapons of mass destruction are nowhere to be found why not use weapons of mass distortion - like how the Iraqi people simply love their occupiers, how the resources of Iraq will only be used for the reconstruction of that country and other monstrous lies, in order to placate an increasingly credulous world.

Now that Bush and Blair have carried out their messianic mission to be the torchbearers of democracy, the Iraqi people can breathe freely and express themselves without fear.

But the two Bs who want to proselytise the four corners of the globe with their visions of democracy are running scared of protests and dissent by their own people.
The protests and demonstrations that await President Bush when he begins a three-day state visit to the UK on November 19 will, by far, be bigger than even those that greeted Chinese President Jiang Zemin's 1999 state visit, the first ever to the UK by a Chinese president.

Curiously, the leader of the world's most powerful democracy, President Bush will have the highest security ever given to a foreign head of state during his visit to another democratic country, Britain- even tighter than to the head of a dictatorial regime from a communist state.

Apparently the security services of both countries fear that suicide bombers or other extremists might use the cover of anti Iraq-war protests to get to President Bush.
But that is not half of it. The two democracies are conniving at ensuring that President Bush will not be embarrassed by anti-war protestors who are threatening to bring at least 100,000 demonstrators from here and continental Europe on to the streets and topple a huge image of Bush to symbolise their hopes.

In London, the Metropolitan Police said they would be closing major roads to create temporary exclusion zones, possibly to spare the visiting president the wrath of angry crowds.

The idea is to preclude President Bush from seeing how popular he and his policies of pre-emptive intervention and neo-colonialism is in Europe. Scotland Yard claims that there has been no pressure from Washington, Buckingham Palace or Blair's office to spare Bush. The police spun a similar tale when they tried to steer the Chinese president away from demonstrators.

Last Spring at least a million people marched in London against the Iraq war. The same cause is bringing a wide cross-section of people out into the streets again. But this time there is an added reason. The British public want Bush and his entourage to know that the most unpopular American president in history, is not welcome in this country.

Next week the two principal architects of that war will be sitting down together in London for agenda talks that would certainly include the growing insecurity in Iraq.
The vast majority of the British public believe they were misled, if not lied to by Bush and Blair and dragged into a war they now think is illegal and unjustified.

Early last week the Cardiff-based Iraq War Research Group published the results of a nationwide survey that clearly showed how the tide of public opinion has turned against the war and its main architects. About 46% of respondents claimed they had changed their minds during and since the war.

While 83% said they "supported the allied forces" during the war, only 44% said they now support "the decision made by the Allied forces" to go into Iraq. This is one of the most dramatic turnarounds in public opinion in recent history says one of those responsible for the survey, Justin Lewis, Professor of Communication, at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies.

The survey also showed the depth of public hostility to President Bush and the relationship between him and Prime Minister Blair. Asked whether America's standing in the world has diminished under Bush junior 59% said yes.

Asked whether the Bush-Blair relationship is good for Britain, 40% said no. On the issue of Iraq, a massive 60% disapproved of Bush's handling of the situation there.
Last month a former Labour cabinet minister Roy Hattersley wrote that in this election year President Bush was trying to get political mileage out of this state visit, the first by an American president since Woodrow Wilson in 1919, if you believe some media reports.

Buckingham Palace sources told me this is the first by an American president.
While who came first might sound inconsequential to a public fast losing its respect for British royalty, it is certainly important for President Bush seeking re-election.
Under the headline "Bush is not welcome in Britain", Hattersley wrote: "Does anyone doubt that film clips from the state dinner at Buckingham Palace will appear in his television campaign commercials?"

This and his meetings with Tony Blair, popular among Americans (remember the slogan Blair for President?) as a great friend of Washington, will surely carry political clout, particularly if the US media fights shy of carrying into American homes, images of the anti-Bush protests. For instance, on the last day of the visit, mock trials of Mr Bush for war crimes, will be held in London and Edinburgh as well as a farewell concert in London called "Goodbye George."

If, as some here suspect, the US media avoids showing these to the American public, it will be left for a resurgent Democratic Party to cash in on popular resentment.
But the worst may be yet to come. Lord Hutton who held an official inquiry into the suicide of David Kelly, a British expert on Iraq's weapons arsenal, is yet to release his report.

If the Hutton inquiry finds that Tony Blair or any of his ministers or officials had traduced the truth, had garnished intelligence reports for political purposes or acted in a manner that led to the suicide, Blair's currently dwindling popularity will plunge even further than women's necklines in the unusually hot summer this year. The report is expected early next year, just when President Bush would be launching his re-election campaign.

Bush advisers hope that the pomp and pageantry of Buckingham Palace, a state banquet with the Queen and rubbing shoulders with a prime minister highly popular in the US, would show Bush still has friends in the world. But if the Hutton report is critical of the government, then Blair's tainted fealty is certain to rub-off on the man whose war against Iraq is increasingly leading to a climate of anger and abhorrence, particularly in the Muslim world.

Neville de Silva is a senior Sri Lankan journalist who worked in Hong Kong and is now based in London writing for the international media.

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