Thank you, President Bush
                                Paulo Coelho
                               11 March 2003


             From Brazil's most popular novelist, Paulo Coelho,
                an open letter of praise for President Bush.



     Thank you, great leader George W. Bush.

     Thank you for showing everyone what a danger Saddam Hussein
     represents. Many of us might otherwise have forgotten that he used
     chemical weapons against his own people, against the Kurds and
     against the Iranians. Hussein is a bloodthirsty dictator and one
     of the clearest expressions of evil in today's world.

     But this is not my only reason for thanking you. During the first
     two months of 2003, you have shown the world a great many other
     important things and, therefore, deserve my gratitude.

     So, remembering a poem I learned as a child, I want to say thank
     you.

     Thank you for showing everyone that the Turkish people and their
     parliament are not for sale, not even for 26 billion dollars.

     Thank you for revealing to the world the gulf that exists between
     the decisions made by those in power and the wishes of the people.
     Thank you for making it clear that neither Jos Mara Aznar nor Tony
     Blair give the slightest weight to or show the slightest respect
     for the votes they received. Aznar is perfectly capable of
     ignoring the fact that 90% of Spaniards are against the war, and
     Blair is unmoved by the largest public demonstration to take place
     in England in the last thirty years.

     Thank you for making it necessary for Tony Blair to go to the
     British parliament with a fabricated dossier written by a student
     ten years ago, and present this as `damning evidence collected by
     the British Secret Service.'

     Thank you for allowing Colin Powell to make a complete fool of
     himself by showing the UN Security Council photos which, one week
     later, were publicly challenged by Hans Blix, the chief weapons
     inspector in Iraq.

     Thank you for adopting your current position and thus ensuring
     that, at the plenary session, the French foreign minister,
     Dominique de Villepin's anti-war speech was greeted with applause
     -- something, as far as I know, that has only happened once before
     in the history of the UN, following a speech by Nelson Mandela.

     Thank you too, because, after all your efforts to promote war, the
     normally divided Arab nations were, for the first time, at their
     meeting in Cairo during the last week in February, unanimous in
     their condemnation of any invasion.

     Thank you for your rhetoric stating that `the UN now has a chance
     to demonstrate its relevance,' a statement which made even the
     most reluctant countries take up a position opposing any attack on
     Iraq.

     Thank you for your foreign policy which provoked the British
     foreign secretary, Jack Straw, into declaring that in the 21st
     century, `a war can have a moral justification,' thus causing him
     to lose all credibility.

     Thank you for trying to divide a Europe that is currently
     struggling for unification; this was a warning that will not go
     unheeded.

     Thank you for having achieved something that very few have so far
     managed to do in this century: the bringing together of millions
     of people on all continents to fight for the same idea, even
     though that idea is opposed to yours.

     Thank you for making us feel once more that though our words may
     not be heard, they are at least spoken -- this will make us
     stronger in the future.

     Thank you for ignoring us, for marginalising all those who oppose
     your decision, because the future of the Earth belongs to the
     excluded.

     Thank you, because, without you, we would not have realised our
     own ability to mobilise. It may serve no purpose this time, but it
     will doubtless be useful later on.

     Now that there seems no way of silencing the drums of war, I would
     like to say, as an ancient European king said to an invader: "May
     your morning be a beautiful one, may the sun shine on your
     soldiers' armour, for in the afternoon, I will defeat you."

     Thank you for allowing us -- an army of anonymous people filling
     the streets in an attempt to stop a process that is already
     underway -- to know what it feels like to be powerless and to
     learn to grapple with that feeling and transform it.

     So, enjoy your morning and whatever glory it may yet bring you.

     Thank you for not listening to us and not taking us seriously, but
     know that we are listening to you and that we will not forget your
     words.

     Thank you, great leader George W. Bush.

     Thank you very much.


     Copyright © 2003 Paulo Coelho
     Reprinted for Fair Use Only.





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