http://nytimes.com/2004/10/01/opinion/01krugman.html?hp
America's Lost Respect
By PAUL KRUGMAN
As a result of the American military," President Bush declared last week,
"the Taliban is no longer in existence."
It's unclear whether Mr. Bush misspoke, or whether he really is that
clueless. But his claim was in keeping with his re-election strategy,
demonstrated once again in last night's debate: a president who has done
immense damage to America's position in the world hopes to brazen it out by
claiming that failure is success.
Three years ago, the United States was both feared and respected: feared
because of its military supremacy, respected because of its traditional
commitment to democracy and the rule of law.
Since then, Iraq has demonstrated the limits of American military power, and
has tied up much of that power in a grinding guerrilla war. This has
emboldened regimes that pose a real threat. Three years ago, would North
Korea have felt so free to trumpet its conversion of fuel rods into bombs?
But even more important is the loss of respect. After the official
rationales for the Iraq war proved false, and after America failed to make
good on its promise to foster democracy in either Afghanistan or Iraq - and,
not least, after Abu Ghraib - the world no longer believes that we are the
good guys.
Let's talk for a minute about Afghanistan, which administration officials
tout as a success story. They rely on the public's ignorance: voters, they
believe, don't know that even though the United States promised to provide
Afghanistan with both security and aid during its transition to democracy,
it broke those promises. It has allowed the country to slide back into
warlordism - and allowed the Taliban to make a comeback.
These days, Mr. Bush and other administration officials often talk about the
10.5 million Afghans who have registered to vote in this month's election,
citing the figure as proof that democracy is making strides after all. They
count on the public not to know, and on reporters not to mention, that the
number of people registered considerably exceeds all estimates of the
eligible population. What they call evidence of democracy on the march is
actually evidence of large-scale electoral fraud.
It's the same story in Iraq: the January election has become the rationale
for everything we're doing, yet it's hard to find anyone not beholden to the
administration who believes that the election, if it happens at all, will be
anything more than a sham.
Yet Mr. Bush and his Congressional allies seem to have learned nothing from
their failures. If Mr. Bush is returned to office, there's every reason to
think that they will continue along the same disastrous path.
We can already see one example of this when we look at the question of
torture. Abu Ghraib has largely vanished from U.S. political discussion,
largely because the administration and its Congressional allies have been so
effective at covering up high-level involvement. But both the revelations
and the cover-up did terrible damage to America's moral authority. To much
of the world, America looks like a place where top officials condone and
possibly order the torture of innocent people, and suffer no consequences.
What we need is an effort to regain our good name. What we're getting
instead is a provision, inserted by Congressional Republicans in the
intelligence reform bill, to legalize "extraordinary rendition" - a
euphemism for sending terrorism suspects to countries that use torture for
interrogation. This would institutionalize a Kafkaesque system under which
suspects can be sent, at the government's whim, to Egypt or Syria or
Jordan - and to fight such a move, it's up to the suspect to prove that
he'll be tortured on arrival. Just what we need to convince other countries
of our commitment to the rule of law.
Most Americans aren't aware of all this. The sheer scale of Mr. Bush's
foreign policy failures insulates him from its political consequences:
voters aren't ready to believe how badly the war in Iraq is going, let alone
how badly America's moral position in the world has deteriorated.
But the rest of the world has already lost faith in us. In fact, let me make
a prediction: if Mr. Bush gets a second term, we will soon have no
democracies left among our allies - no, not even Tony Blair's Britain. Mr.
Bush will be left with the support of regimes that don't worry about the
legalities - regimes like Vladimir Putin's Russia.
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| User: "Michael Johnathan McDonald" |
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| Title: Re: America's Lost Respect |
01 Oct 2004 05:15:53 PM |
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"Marvin The Paranoid Android" <marvin@galaxy.com> wrote in message news:<0la7d.20918$MD5.1205625@news20.bellglobal.com>...
http://nytimes.com/2004/10/01/opinion/01krugman.html?hp
America's Lost Respect
What respect did we have?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Funny that Kerry wants Bi-lateral objectives with North Korea while
Bush does not ( Citing the Debates last night) . This is funny in
respect to Kerry saying he wants to form alliances and not break them.
So the funny thing is in doing so for N. Korea ( Kerry's plan) is a
slap in the face of Japan, Australia, China, Russia, and other
countries involved with containing N. Korea in the multi-national
coalition as Bush is a part of.
Nice to see Kerry as stupid as ever – Oh, he has the right for his own
plans – just don't state that you are for garnering support then
devise a plan that will be insular to the allies against ( his most
concerned point in the Presidential case) nuclear Proliferation. His
own statements contradicted his own plans – what a buffoon? ;)
I also like to see him tell the Russians that he is going to invade
their country and grab there nukes in less than four years. This
should be fun! ;)
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| User: "Barbarossa" |
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| Title: Re: America's Lost Respect |
01 Oct 2004 08:54:12 PM |
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"Michael Johnathan McDonald" <abookoflife@yahoo.com> schreef in bericht
news:dd3256f0.0410011415.1056bdc0@posting.google.com...
"Marvin The Paranoid Android" <marvin@galaxy.com> wrote in message
news:<0la7d.20918$MD5.1205625@news20.bellglobal.com>...
http://nytimes.com/2004/10/01/opinion/01krugman.html?hp
America's Lost Respect
What respect did we have?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Funny that Kerry wants Bi-lateral objectives with North Korea while
Bush does not ( Citing the Debates last night) . This is funny in
respect to Kerry saying he wants to form alliances and not break them.
So the funny thing is in doing so for N. Korea ( Kerry's plan) is a
slap in the face of Japan, Australia, China, Russia, and other
countries involved with containing N. Korea in the multi-national
coalition as Bush is a part of.
Nice to see Kerry as stupid as ever - Oh, he has the right for his own
plans - just don't state that you are for garnering support then
devise a plan that will be insular to the allies against ( his most
concerned point in the Presidential case) nuclear Proliferation. His
own statements contradicted his own plans - what a buffoon? ;)
I also like to see him tell the Russians that he is going to invade
their country and grab there nukes in less than four years. This
should be fun! ;)
Hmm, the multilateral talks which Bush proposed lead to nothing but
a nation that posesses WMD. Now I really wonder what bilateral
negotitiations might bring about.
Kind Regards,
Barbarossa
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| User: "Jean Guernon" |
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| Title: Re: America's Lost Respect |
02 Oct 2004 01:03:21 PM |
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Nah, that is what the bilateral talks led to.
Dream on.
J.
Barbarossa a écrit:
"Michael Johnathan McDonald" <abookoflife@yahoo.com> schreef in bericht
news:dd3256f0.0410011415.1056bdc0@posting.google.com...
"Marvin The Paranoid Android" <marvin@galaxy.com> wrote in message
news:<0la7d.20918$MD5.1205625@news20.bellglobal.com>...
http://nytimes.com/2004/10/01/opinion/01krugman.html?hp
America's Lost Respect
What respect did we have?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Funny that Kerry wants Bi-lateral objectives with North Korea while
Bush does not ( Citing the Debates last night) . This is funny in
respect to Kerry saying he wants to form alliances and not break them.
So the funny thing is in doing so for N. Korea ( Kerry's plan) is a
slap in the face of Japan, Australia, China, Russia, and other
countries involved with containing N. Korea in the multi-national
coalition as Bush is a part of.
Nice to see Kerry as stupid as ever - Oh, he has the right for his own
plans - just don't state that you are for garnering support then
devise a plan that will be insular to the allies against ( his most
concerned point in the Presidential case) nuclear Proliferation. His
own statements contradicted his own plans - what a buffoon? ;)
I also like to see him tell the Russians that he is going to invade
their country and grab there nukes in less than four years. This
should be fun! ;)
Hmm, the multilateral talks which Bush proposed lead to nothing but
a nation that posesses WMD. Now I really wonder what bilateral
negotitiations might bring about.
Kind Regards,
Barbarossa
.
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| User: "Kadaitcha Man" |
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| Title: Re: America's Lost Respect |
02 Oct 2004 01:08:22 AM |
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(Michael Johnathan McDonald) wrote in message news:<dd3256f0.0410011415.1056bdc0@posting.google.com>...
"Marvin The Paranoid Android" <marvin@galaxy.com> wrote in message news:<0la7d.20918$MD5.1205625@news20.bellglobal.com>...
http://nytimes.com/2004/10/01/opinion/01krugman.html?hp
America's Lost Respect
What respect did we have?
How ironic coming from a nescient fuckwit.
At least you have your pride.
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