Well, thank God for that.

George Bush has lost badly in the US mid-term elections, which have been watched as never before. Having been given the White House by a law court, not by the electorate, he went on short-sightedly with a gung-ho attitude to do what his father had not done before him. Invade Iraq.

An equally short-sighted American public re-elected him four years later, on his pretext of the war on terror. But this time, just two years later, they were not fooled. They have seen, belatedly, the carnage of Iraq, whose terror was inflicted only on its own people, not on the rest of the world. All that loss of life, including American lives, is getting them nowhere. We can sigh with relief, and expect some sense now from a United States that needs to regain its moral standing in the world.

The Bush presidency has been the worst inflicted on a long-suffering world. The Americans have ignored all the warnings of climate change and have not done anything to produce a green fuel for the cars they love so much. Mr Bush is an oil man, and does not mind being in the oil industry’s power. Even after Katrina they ignored everything.

How can he sleep at night? Thousands killed in Iraq, for a misguided policy that should never have been pursued. And the standing of the US in the world is as low today as Mr Bush’s own ratings with the electorate.

We now also have another powerful woman in the American government. The Speaker of the House of Representatives. Madeline Albright left no mark of her stint as Secretary of State. Neither has Condoleezza Rice, so far. Will Pelosi? I wonder.

I only hope this debacle does not open the way for another “Clinton” presidency.

J. Falzon,

Rabat.