GTJ, I have had the same experience. I should save each paragraph on WORD as I type it but in the haste to get everything down while it is in my head or before I get mentally tongue tied, I don't and that is when these accidents happen.

It is pretty much a given that, whoever finishes up in charge in Iraq, it won't be anyone elected by any sort of democratic process as that term is understood by those of us in Australia, Britain Canada New Zealand etc. It will undoubtedly be an American puppet, thus continuing the long tradition of American ersatz colonialism. Examples abound. The most recent is of course Afghanistan. The American version of colonialism differs from that of say Britain in that the Americans have never been interested in actually physically occupying a country (other than their own), putting an administration in place, and bringing the benefist of colonialism to the country. They prefer to install a local with whom they can do business, pay him a fortune, and then economically exploit the country. They don't care if any of the money being paid to the ruler goes to the benefit of the country or not or what he does to the people of the country. Current examples are Equatorial Guinea and Angola. If an American installed leader is replaced by a leftist government which then tries to bring some sort of democratic processs to the country, and which shows signs of say nationalising American interests, or imposing tariffs on foreign goods, or otherwise taxing the American exploiters so that some benefits can flow to the people, that government is quickly overthrown. Nicaragua and Chile are perfect examples. Poor old Saddam must be ruing the day Maggie Thatcher came on the scene. He may have been a bastard but to borrow from Noam Chomsky he was America's bastard. They were quite happy even after he invaded Kuwait until Maggie got under George Senior's skin and pushed him to do something. I wonder why she did it ? It must have been to win another victory a la the Falklands and thereby ensure re-election. It didn't do her much good, it ultimately didn't do Saddam much good, and it certainly hasn't done the 500,000 Iraqi children or the 100,000 Iraqi civilians who have died since the invasion much good. I expect that the next chap will also be a bastard but he will at least be America's bastard, so all will be right with the world. Speaking of the 100,000 civilians, I expect that the team from Johns Hopkins who wrote the report published in the Lancet will now have trouble getting back into America. I wonder why it was published in the Lancet ? I expect that nobody in the US would publish it. Well. as I write the Americans are 'voting' ( if it can be called that ). Stories abound of computerised voting machines which when you press 2 for Democrat it registers 3 for Republican, and there is no paper trail to check. Not enough voting machines in Democrat areas. Many people struck off the rolls for being felons simply because they have the same name as a person who is a felon. Presumably many other forms of chicanery which have not been found out. The Republicans are the Tammany Hall of the 21st century. They are not afraid to cheat in order to win. I confidently expect that George will win. He has the power of the government to enable him to steal yet another election, he has the Osama bogeyman, he has Fox News to deliver his message. and the stupidity of middle America to swallow it. And if all that fails, they have teams of lawyers standing by to take any result to the courts. Isn't it embarrassing ? Supposedly modern and efficient etc etc and they can't even run an election properly. That fiasco in 2000 made them the laughing stock of the world ( apart from the areas which hate them, which of course have increased exponentially since the invasion). Speaking of Osama, I expect that the people of middle America now have their guns at the ready to protect themselves against the bogeyman. Never mind the British and the IRA, this is the real deal. The courage of these people in just going out their front doors in the morning amazes me. One never knows when one might wake up one morning and there on the doorstep is Osama and his fifty closest friends announcing that they have just invaded America. What a frightening prospect. By the same token, I don't expect things to change much if Kerry is elected. The spots on the American leopard are pretty much there to stay. After all, it was Clinton who bombed Serbia.

GTJ, A good posting and although capfka has a point about the character of some of the audience, it is nonetheless a welcome insight into the US brand of 'democracy' for other countries.