Though 70% of Americans in the United States back their president’s decision to go to war and approve of the way he is handling the situation in Iraq, most expatriates living in South Africa appear to be ashamed of George W Bush.
”Americans in America don’t have an international perspective. Most of them don’t travel outside America. They see things as they are in America and that’s a shame,” said Jennifer Seif, an expatriate American who works in the South African tourism industry.
”I feel a sense of shame because of the way this has come down to war and could not be resolved diplomatically. I feel ashamed that Americans are supporting this war. People are looking at it in a way that it’s either you support Bush or you support Saddam Hussein. And it’s not like that at all.”
Barbara Ludman, a journalist who has lived in South Africa since 1976, said the war on Iraq is being waged not out of ideology but out of greed and because Bush and his ”cronies” hope to make money out of it.
How does she feel about Bush and his presidency? ”Oh, my God. I’m totally appalled that Bush is in that office. He’s dangerous. The people who advise him are dangerous.”
She said Americans are generally good people, but Bush has brought out the worst in them. ”If there’s any support for the war at home it is because they all believe that they are going to help the people of Iraq.”
Allana Finley, a documentary film-maker who moved to South Africa two years ago, said that living outside the US has made her see things a lot clearer. ”I’m happy to be in South Africa right now. It just puts you in tune with what the war really means. When in America, you feel like you want to root for the home team.”
She said American society is generally easily manipulated and if she was there she would probably also be cheering for the home team.
”Being in America means that you become less realistic about the consequences of your actions.”
She said that the history of the US and the Bush family showed that both have left a legacy. ”Bush is after oil; the Americans want the cheapest fuel and right now they want what’s in Iraq. ”War is point-blank wrong,” she said.
She said she felt safer in South Africa than she would have felt back home.
”A friend circulated an e-mail advising us to lay low. Because I’m in another country, I have a different level of sensitivity.” But she still takes measures to be less visible as an American by softening her accent and talking less loudly on the streets.
Finley said a group of Americans in South Africa is boycotting US products as a way of expressing their discontent.
”I don’t know if it’s making much of a difference now, but if more people did that it would definitely have an impact on the American economy,” she said.
Kenneth Walker, MD of Lion House Strategic Communications, had been visiting South Africa for 20 years before deciding to settle here four years ago.
He said the kind of violence America is inflicting on Iraq can be contagious. ”In this day and age humanity cannot continue with this warmongering. One well-motivated individual can cause chaos. More war creates better-motivated individuals. It has to stop.
”Bush only became president because of vote-rigging, but after the September 11 incident this was just swept under the carpet,” he said.
”I don’t think that the war is all about oil. America basically wants everybody to know that it is in charge, intimidating those who might want to be its enemy.”
Brooks Spector, director of the Culture and Information Centre at the US consulate in Johannesburg, said the ”hostilities” came about because Iraq had not complied with United Nations requirements to reveal its weapons of mass destruction and to disarm.
”For 12 years now the Iraqi government has not met UN demands for them to disband certain weapons of mass destruction.”
Spector, who has lived in South Africa on and off for 28 years, says no diplomat likes the idea of war but that sometimes there is no alternative.
”As an American diplomat I hope that the hostilities will end soon and that a new democratic Iraq society will be born when they are over,” he said.
Many Americans spoken to by the Mail & Guardian refused to be identified, saying they feared ”retaliation from the government”.
Maggie who works for a US NGO said Bush is a ”cretin” who failed as a Texan oilman and is now after power.
”I have no doubt that this war is about power and the control of oil. He’s had several businesses and none has been successful. He’s an incredible hypocrite, a moron and can’t put together a sentence,” she said. ”He will go down in history as the man who made the world unsafe for everyone.”