Views on Iraq, Bush & terrorism from around the world (article)
WORLD VIEWS: In wake of 9/11 tragedy, concern grows that U.S. policy
is fueling more, not less, terrorism; Mexico's Carlos Fuentes attacks
Bush in new book; and more.
Edward M. Gomez, special to SF Gate
Thursday, September 16, 2004
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As the world marks three years since the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, 2001, on New York and Washington, and with civil war raging on in
post-Saddam Iraq, many foreign commentators seem to be questioning
George W. Bush's policies and the effects they have had around the
globe more forcefully than ever.
Instead of thwarting terrorism, "Bush's militantly hysterical
foreign policy that claims to fight terror ... has been a major global
catalyst and recruiting agent for terror," wrote Rami G. Khouri,
executive editor of Lebanon's Daily Star.
"Bush and his ice-hearted Republican political strategists have
crassly exploited the shock, fear and bewilderment that gripped
Americans on Sept. 11 and turned the U.S. into a hysterical arena
defined by a peculiar combination of exaggerated jingoism and
militarism ...," Khouri observed. As a result, he added, "[o]therwise
rational people everywhere have been transformed into agents of
emotional and political fury, using and accepting severe violence as
an inevitable consequence of our times."
A news analysis in Aujourd'hui le Maroc, a Moroccan daily, noted
that "war or no war, the specter of terrorism continues to worry the
international community three years after the strike[s] against New
York," and that, looking across from Iraq to Iran, Bush "has been
accused of exploiting the attacks ... to further his expansionist
policy" in the region.
The flip side of -- or perhaps an inevitable corollary to -- such
cynical exploitation of events, some Arab or Muslim observers feel,
has been that, as the Bush administration's rhetoric has focused on
the victims of the September 2001 attacks, "no count [has been] kept
of Iraqis who have been and are being killed, and they are in the
thousands. ... Television channels do not show tearful funerals ...
[or] weeping family members [or] mothers collapsing at the sight of
[their] dead child[ren]." (Dawn)
So observed an op-ed writer in Pakistan's daily Dawn, who also
noted, "This seems ... to be a callous omission unless Iraqis and
Afghans fall short of those human qualities that meet the standards of
compassion deserving of public sorrow." He also pointed out that
"[t]he war on terror is beginning to have a life of its own, and it is
seriously affecting freedom struggles all over the world because
everything is being dumped in the laundry bag of terrorism."
Now that Russia, with the recent hostage-taking crisis in Beslan,
has experienced what some analysts have called a 9/11 of its own,
prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to grab far-reaching powers
in the name of antiterrorism that could stifle the country's fledgling
democracy (Reuters), "[t]he former cold-war enemies [the United States
and Russia] find themselves threatened by the same danger" and should
work together to forge a "common front" against international
terrorism.
That's what Jean Daniel, editor of France's Le Nouvel Observateur,
urged in an editorial. Instead, he noted, policies like Bush's in
Iraq, Putin's in Chechnya and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's in
the occupied Palestinian territories each seem to be so separately and
so stubbornly pursued that they have served only to "radicalize the
extremes" and foster more terrorism, with little sense of common
purpose.
As an editorial writer for Russia's Pravda put it, "The only option
to solve this problem is cooperation between different countries in
fighting terrorism, but there has been no such cooperation so far."
"My European friends, do not despair of America!" U.S. historian
Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote, sounding a note of cautious optimism, in
an exchange of commentaries with prolific U.K. journalist and
historian Timothy Garton Ash. The pieces, first published by Italy's
La Repubblica to mark the third anniversary of the 2001 attacks, were
later republished in the United Kingdom's Guardian. The United States,
Schlesinger continued, "is still the bold and idealistic country of
FDR and JFK, though boldness and idealism have latterly turned
somewhat into bellicosity and arrogance."
Admitting that Bush's war in Iraq was fought on the "false
premises" of "alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and
the alleged partnership between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden,"
that Bush never won an electoral mandate to back up the aggressive
policies he has pursued and that "[n]ever in American history has the
U.S. been so unpopular abroad," Schlesinger nevertheless seemed to ask
Europeans and others outside the United States to give the nation time
to sort out the tone and methods of its foreign policy, and,
implicitly, to correct its mistakes. But can the world afford such
time, and how much?
Acknowledging that "[w]e have to fight" to "defend tolerance,
reason, culture and understanding" and that "more Americans than
Europeans understand this," Garton Ash allowed that "the conduct" of
Bush's so-called war against terrorism "has been strong."
"But it has not been wise," he wrote, in its "unconditional backing
for Ariel Sharon in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," its "war of
choice on Iraq" and its "wholly inadequate preparation for the postwar
occupation" there. "These foolish policies have alienated moderate
Muslim opinion everywhere, set Europe against America, increased the
threat of terrorism and made the U.S. resented in almost every corner
of the globe."
Garton Ash noted that he had been "alarmed by the militarization of
political rhetoric in the U.S." over the past three years and by the
fact that, under Bush, "[t]oo often, the country seems to be engrossed
in a mythic, heroic narrative of patriotic, martial prowess." In fact,
he suggested, to "win this struggle together," the United States,
European nations and other countries "need to be both strong and
wise." For Garton Ash, this means "recognizing that this is a war that
war can't win."
* * * *
For decades one of Latin America's leading public intellectuals,
Mexican essayist, novelist, political analyst and former diplomat
Carlos Fuentes is no fan of George W. Bush. That's largely because
Fuentes' broad knowledge and deep understanding of modern history have
taught him to question political leaders of all stripes, especially
when their policies or actions challenge the democratic values he has
long championed in his work.
Now, in a new book, "Contra Bush" ("Against Bush"), which Fuentes
has been promoting in Spain, the internationally famous author
examines what he sees as Bush's dictatorial tendencies. He also looks
at the U.S. government under Bush's command, whose pronouncements and
policies, he argues, have been intentionally formulated to reinforce
the position of the economically powerful at the expense of the weak.
(El Periodico, reg. required)
Dubbing Bush a "perverse idiot," Fuentes describes what he calls
the "Marxism-Darwinism" of the Republican president and his
neoconservative policy makers. They're Marxist, he said during his
book tour, "in the sense that history is fundamentally determined by
economic interests and economic infrastructures." They're Darwinists,
he added, "because they believe in the triumph of the stronger." He
added that "they have implemented [these ideas] waving a flag that is
very easy to wave, that of patriotism." (El Pais/Pagina 12)
As Fuentes sees it, Bush, through "manipulation and intimidation,"
is "preparing the extinction of every model for progress that isn't
American." (La Voz de Galicia)
Both as a fiction writer and as a political analyst, Fuentes
appears to be fascinated by Bush's character and beliefs, and by how
they appear to be reflected in what is happening in the United States
today. He noted with curiosity, "What is most surprising is [the fact]
that a man who evaded military service is now presenting himself as
the defender of the military security of the U.S." That such unlikely,
even perverse developments should be playing out in a country that,
like the Germany that gave rise to Nazism, has boasted a "great
intellectual, liberal, democratic tradition," is a tendency that
alarms him, Fuentes remarked. Like the Nazis, he observed, Bush's
government has created "a militarized state, repressive with respect
to human rights, with a mission that is far reaching in scope and is
founded on the old, founding puritanism of the U.S." (El Pais/Pagina
12)
Fuentes has written political commentary throughout his career; his
essays regularly appear in Mexican newspapers and other publications
in the Spanish-speaking world. As he travels to promote his new book,
he has also has some advice for John Kerry, who he believes will do
well in the forthcoming presidential-campaign debates. His message to
the Democratic candidate is simple: "[D]o the opposite of what [Bush]
has done." (El Periodico, reg. required)
______________________________________________________
Author, artist and critic Edward M. Gomez is a former diplomat and
correspondent for Time magazine in New York, Tokyo and Paris. He
speaks several languages and has lived and worked all over the world.
He is a regular contributor to The New York Times and other
publications and is the U.S. editor of Raw Vision magazine.
worldviews@sfgate.com
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/worldviews/
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