GRAB A GUN, OPEN YOUR PURSE, OR SHUT UP:

World urges Bush to heal divisions (The Age, November 4, 2004)

A divided world came to terms today with the prospect of four more years of US President George W. Bush, with friends hailing his re-election and critics vowing to make the best of it, especially in Iraq.

Allies like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi saw Bush's victory as bolstering the US-declared "war on terror". But some disenchanted Europeans urged him to heal transatlantic rifts.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose outspoken opposition to war in Iraq angered Washington but helped him win re-election in 2002, sought common ground with Bush.

"Our security and stability are threatened by international terrorism, the risk of the spread of weapons of mass destruction, regional crises, poverty, climate change and epidemics. These challenges can only be met together," Schroeder said in a telegram.

French President Jacques Chirac, another fierce critic of last year's Iraq war, congratulated Bush and also spoke of "our joint fight against terrorism".

Now would be a good time for those who've been hiding beneath our skirts to ask themselves what they can do to help in the Middle East.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 4, 2004 8:40 AM