Who Cares About Kerry? It's Bush We Can't Stand, Say Vietnamese

Who Cares About Kerry? It's Bush We Can't Stand, Say Vietnamese: "HANOI, Aug 27 (AFP) - The question of whether presidential candidate John Kerry was a coward or a leader during the Vietnam War might be raging in the United States, but on the streets of Hanoi people hope for just one result from the American election -- the exit of George W. Bush.

'I've read a few things in the newspapers about the presidential campaign in the US but I don't care much. Bush is barbarous,' a 78-year-old retiree, who did not want to give his name, told AFP.

The mere mention of the former Texas oilman visibly rattles a souvenir saleswoman in central Hanoi but Kerry, who possibly killed Vietnamese nationals during his service in the war, seems not to matter.

'Bush is a crazy man,' she said. 'We hate him. Believe me, no one in Vietnam likes him.
'I don't know much about the presidential campaign in the US. But I will be very happy if Bush fails.'

Yet while the government has been silent on the US elections, in the pirated-DVD shops of Hanoi the anti-Bush polemic by outspoken filmmaker Michael Moore, "Fahrenheit 9/11", is readily available.

"I think the Vietnamese people are better than Americans in overcoming the wounds of war," said architect Pham Van Thang, 35.

The fact that politicians are arguing over what happened 30 years ago so they can be elected in November only adds to the impression among Vietnamese that they are indulging in scandal-mongering."


by Didier Lauras
Turkish Press