Sorely missed

Jim Sorely, a local red ragger, was Lord Mayor of Brisbane for some years and now has a column in the local Sunday Mail. (scroll down) I’m told that senior people at the Mail would rather they didn’t have to carry his byline but have little choice. Sorely prattles on about Philip Roth who has recently published a ‘what if this happened’ novel, making Jim wonder;

… if 50 years down the track some creative author will write a book of speculative fiction about a wise, peace-loving president who is elected to lead the US instead of George W. Bush in 2000.

Who knows, Jim, maybe someone will and if they do the story-line is already available Let’s say John Kerry was elected as President. Surely he would fit your ‘wise, peace loving’ definition, wouldn’t he? I mean he was peace-loving enough to roll over to the communists during the Vietnam War so I guess he’d definitely fit the bill. Well, on hearing Kerry had been elected, El Quaeda and the Taliban would have celebrated a victory and started planning more battles in the fight against the Infidels. The WTC and Bali obscenities would have been repeated in other cities as the US military withdrew under Kerry’s orders to defend Stateside only. (a left wing mantra). The UN, now emboldened, would continue their Iraq embargo with Koffi Annan, his son and a host of minions taking bribes while Saddam would have maintained his WMD programme with money that was supposed to be for health and education. He would have used some of that money to slaughter more of those annoying Kurds and anyone else who even mouthed the word Democracy. In Afghanistan the Taliban, now aware that no-one cared about small people, woman and kids, would be applying Sharia law where woman would be, and had been previously, stoned to death for adultry; where girls are forbidden an education and all education resolves around the time-honoured formula that guarantees society stays in the 12th century. Sounds better all the time, Jim. Recruiting for the El Quaeda would’ve skyrocketed with psycopaths from all over the Middle East queing up to punch Uncle Sam and her allies in the nose. The front would have opened up to include all US bases in the Middle East as the terrorists forced the US back to the mainland. There would be no dream of democracy in Iraq; Syria would not have withdrawn from Lebanon; the Mullahs in Iran would not be worried about the creep of democracy and their people would not be demanding it. The Saudi princes would still be looking forward to a lifetime in power and would not even be considering giving their people the vote. Even with Arafat dead, Palestine extremists would still be blowing up Israeli woman and kids and you, Jim, would be happy with the status quo. Thank God Phillip Roth’s novel was only fiction and you have no power to force your foolish dreams on the populace.