I confess: I no longer understand Americans

I have to bow to the fact that America today reelected Bush as President.

But I don't understand it.

Seen from here, Bush is responsible for -

- Getting the US and the world into a war that proved not to be founded on any of the things it claimed to be founded on. It may have been a good enough cause to remove Saddam Hussein - but the execution has proved to be completely clueless as to how to establish a peace afterwards.

- Redirecting the wealth in the US to the rich - leaving a financial deficit of a size that is unheard of.

- Putting the environment - this world that we all, also Americans, live in - in a much worse state. Not only that, but actually going back on a treaty that had been signed on behalf of his country.

- Failing to make the world a safer place. On the contrary, hate towards the US - and with it, the rest of the Western world - and probably also recruiting for terrorists has been on the increase.

- Saying that he was going to unite America - but leaving it so deeply polarized that it is hard to see how it can be healed again anytime soon.

I am also worried that Bush is representing a right-wing religious attitude that may - if it is not kept curbed - at some point may make it relevant to ask whether the USA is becoming as fundamentalistically Christian as some countries has been accused of being fundamentalistic Muslim.

I know a good number of Americans, people that I like and happily call my friends. But overall, I cannot any longer say that I understand Americans.

For me, it is a sad day.