Bush urges Americans to be proud of country

Sunday 06th July, 06:10 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 83 Total Comments Show All

Japanophile1 at 01:24 PM JST - 8th July

Bush has the lowest approval ratings in the United States of any president since approval ratings began to be taken... Even the Republicans don't stand united with him anymore. He has lost everything. There is nothing left for him.
Betzee at 01:30 PM JST - 8th July

In all fairness, the economic problems are not all GWB's fault. Yet because he comes across as spectacularly unaware of them, most Americans (75 percent) do blame him. Certainly Republicans would be blaming a Democrat if he were in the WH as gas prices doubled over the course of a year. So I'm not going to shed any tears over the injustice of his predicament.
chardk1 at 03:28 PM JST - 8th July

Patriotism and nationalism are not inherently the same thing, neither are pride and partisanship. To combine these concepts is neither a principled nor intellectually honest view, regarding one's country or anything else. Usually those who do so are making an calculated appeal to what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" for some selfish end of their own.

Being proud of America doesn't mean arguing every single thing it ever does is defensible or ripping other countries as "hey, do it better yourself" and shouting "USA USA" at the top of one's lungs to drown out any counterargument. If you love your son, if he commits murder do you have to turn it around and argue the victim deserved to die? That is what some American "patriots" basically view as the only acceptable form of "loyalty." So please, stop with the "Liberals don't love/aren't proud of America nonsense." No party, no creed, no race has a monopoly on patriotism and it is ignorant and poisonous to claim as much. Blind devotion is not the only or best kind, and one should naturally be skeptical of those who brag about possessing loads of it, as if that was something to be proud of in and of itself.
Betzee at 07:17 PM JST - 8th July

chardk1,

Thank you for a thoughtful post.

Liberals value America's ideals where we often fall short given the policy-making process is filled with self-interested actors. Occasionally one finds a conservative true believer, such as the former WH press secretary Scott McClellan, who, when he finally sees the light, is stunned. Predictably his revelations of the GWB White House were widely condemned by conservatives who confuse loyalty to their cause with loyalty to the country.
HoDeDo at 01:56 PM JST - 9th July

As the great Samuel Clemens once said "Patriotism is loving your country all of the time, and loving your government only when it deserves it."
kavikahi at 03:44 PM JST - 9th July

Pride for a price you can pay, there is more to humanity than nationalism.
RedMeatKoolAid at 10:17 PM JST - 9th July

"Bush has the lowest approval ratings in the United States of any president since approval ratings began to be taken... Even the Republicans don't stand united with him anymore. He has lost everything. There is nothing left for him."

Bush is polling at 30, for people who put stock in such stuff.

Congress is polling at nine percent, the lowest of any Congress.

Evah.
saseboni at 10:12 PM JST - 10th July

Maruku I think he meant to say: “We live in a nation founded on the idea of power, a nation limited only by imagination, and a nation that has done more than any other to sleight liberty throughout the world,” the president said in his weekly radio address one day after the nation celebrated Independence Day. This from a Japanese whose nation was liberated by the US? This from a Japanese whos nation once tried to conquer Asia? How ironic and hypocritical. The US HAS done many things for the world, including technology, enterprise, spreading democracy and oh yeah, stopping Tojo. You obviously know Jack about History, and one of the worlds rabid America haters, who refuse to look at the good the US has done. Americans, instead of just saying, oh,yeah Japan thats the country that tried to take over the world, and raped 20,000 women in Nanking China among other atrocities, no we say, Japan , a beautiful country with polite people and a great culture. Obviously you don`t believe in Returning the same respect. Shame on you.
zurcronium at 01:00 AM JST - 11th July

congress is an institution made up of 535 members. Bush is one person pretending to be a president. Congressmen get re-elected 97 percent of the time because they have local support. Bush has no support from anyone with an IQ over room temperature.

The USA is great, at least where I am from. Bush is loser that makes the US look bad.
KitsuneYoukai at 03:13 AM JST - 11th July

I am proud, have been and always will be to be an American. When I think of the construction of our constitution and declaration of Independence and the wording of it it still awes me. Our founding fathers were so very clever that it can still stand the test of time and work in modern America.
RedMeatKoolAid at 03:29 PM JST - 11th July

The US is great. I can no longer count the number of foreigners I've met in Japan and on forums such as this who like to pretend it is where they are from. Zurcronium knows what I mean...
Blue_Tiger at 07:51 PM JST - 11th July

I am proud to be a ciitizen of the United States of America. There is no better country on the face of the earth.
RedMeatKoolAid at 09:42 PM JST - 11th July

If they read the Telegraph - and few do - they were probably more impressed by what this Brit journalist wrote recently concerning GW Bush:

"This is a man who has the courage of his convictions.

Let’s not forget how Europe does wars.

Usually we wait and wait until the enemy starts attacking, then we let them win a bit, then we fight until we are tired, then we just call the US to come over to clean our mess.

That is what happened in WWI, WWII, and the Balkans.

Bush is just showing us what a bunch of dangerous ditherers we are and we hate him for it. Naturally."
lipscombe at 12:20 AM JST - 12th July

oh dear oh dear oh dear
zurcronium at 09:35 PM JST - 12th July

Many of the far-right winger team who post often on JT confuse patriotism with empty rhetoric that borders on propaganda. RedMeatKoolAid knows what I mean.