Arundhati Roy in The Guardian

Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things, has an op-ed in today's Guardian (which, I might add, has become one of my first stops every day) that starts out much like the rest of the literary world's denunciation of BushWarII, focusing particularly on the doublespeak and hypocrisy of the Anglo-American government positions. But then, surprisingly, she then embarks on an impassioned defense of the American and British people.

In most parts of the world, the invasion of Iraq is being seen as a racist war. The real danger of a racist war unleashed by racist regimes is that it engenders racism in everybody - perpetrators, victims, spectators. It sets the parameters for the debate, it lays out a grid for a particular way of thinking. There is a tidal wave of hatred for the US rising from the ancient heart of the world. In Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Australia. I encounter it every day. Sometimes it comes from the most unlikely sources. Bankers, businessmen, yuppie students, and they bring to it all the crassness of their conservative, illiberal politics. That absurd inability to separate governments from people: America is a nation of morons, a nation of murderers, they say, (with the same carelessness with which they say, "All Muslims are terrorists"). Even in the grotesque universe of racist insult, the British make their entry as add-ons. Arse-lickers, they're called. Suddenly, I, who have been vilified for being "anti-American" and "anti-west", find myself in the extraordinary position of defending the people of America. And Britain.

Those who descend so easily into the pit of racist abuse would do well to remember the hundreds of thousands of American and British citizens who protested against their country's stockpile of nuclear weapons. And the thousands of American war resisters who forced their government to withdraw from Vietnam. They should know that the most scholarly, scathing, hilarious critiques of the US government and the "American way of life" comes from American citizens. And that the funniest, most bitter condemnation of their prime minister comes from the British media. Finally they should remember that right now, hundreds of thousands of British and American citizens are on the streets protesting the war. The Coalition of the Bullied and Bought consists of governments, not people. More than one third of America's citizens have survived the relentless propaganda they've been subjected to, and many thousands are actively fighting their own government. In the ultra-patriotic climate that prevails in the US, that's as brave as any Iraqi fighting for his or her homeland.

While the "Allies" wait in the desert for an uprising of Shia Muslims on the streets of Basra, the real uprising is taking place in hundreds of cities across the world. It has been the most spectacular display of public morality ever seen.

Most courageous of all, are the hundreds of thousands of American people on the streets of America's great cities - Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco. The fact is that the only institution in the world today that is more powerful than the American government, is American civil society. American citizens have a huge responsibility riding on their shoulders. How can we not salute and support those who not only acknowledge but act upon that responsibility? They are our allies, our friends.

[...]

Despite the pall of gloom that hangs over us today, I'd like to file a cautious plea for hope: in times of war, one wants one's weakest enemy at the helm of his forces. And President George W Bush is certainly that. Any other even averagely intelligent US president would have probably done the very same things, but would have managed to smoke-up the glass and confuse the opposition. Perhaps even carry the UN with him. Bush's tactless imprudence and his brazen belief that he can run the world with his riot squad, has done the opposite. He has achieved what writers, activists and scholars have striven to achieve for decades. He has exposed the ducts. He has placed on full public view the working parts, the nuts and bolts of the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire.

Take it to heart, folks. We still have the power. I'm sick to death of being ashamed of my government, of being represented to the rest of the world by an arrogant, dim-witted sociopath. It's easy to whip the American public into a frenzy but it is much, much harder to maintain it. Despite the Rovian plan to project an air of invincibility, Bush is deeply vulnerable. He's ours for the next year and a half, but he's also ours to kick to the curb next November, along with his shadowy cadre of Rasputins.

It will take a generation to repair the damage that this lunatic fringe has inflicted upon our economy, our alliances, and our moral standing in just 2-1/2 short years. Let's all roll up our sleeves and get the reconstruction started by delivering a Shock and Awe campaign on the Bushistas next November. And before the American left forms its predictable circular firing squad because each person's pet issue isn't front and center, remember: The Democrat you hate the very most would still be infinitely better than what we have now. Keep your eye on the ball.