[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Reginald Dale International Herald Tribune
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- Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 22:10:02 +0100
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Europeans, lend him your ears New Feature
Reginald Dale International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
President Bush in Europe
MADISON, Virginia A woman who is no fan of President George W. Bush in this
rural red-state community recently wrote the local paper boasting she had
switched off the president's State of the Union address after only five
minutes. She then proceeded to castigate his policies on Iraq and the Middle
East for the best part of 600 words.
.
Of course, having missed most of what he said, she got it completely wrong, all
the less surprisingly as she also proudly admitted her views were heavily
influenced by Hollywood movies. Her irrational if entertaining letter would be
trivial were it not representative of a much wider conundrum surrounding the
Bush presidency: Why is that so many people think they know what Bush thinks,
while so few appear to listen to what he says?
.
The phenomenon is particularly widespread among Bush's many critics in America.
But it also seems to have afflicted Europeans, who long ago formed their
opinions of Bush, often on the basis of crude caricatures in the European
media, and don't want to change them now.
.
There is little doubt, however, that many people who think they know what Bush
thinks are wrong. And that in turn makes it harder for them to criticize Bush
effectively. If you don't know what you are aiming at, you'll probably miss the
target.
.
The syndrome manifested itself at a heftier geopolitical level than this Blue
Ridge Mountain village after Bush vowed to pursue global freedom in his second
inaugural speech in January. Opponents immediately accused him of pledging to
impose the American political system on the world by military force.
.
This is what he actually said: "This is not primarily the task of arms... And
when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may
reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not
impose our own style of government on the unwilling." Were they listening? Or
didn't they want to hear?
.
Here is a bald statement from the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung in early
February: "George Bush, in any case, is unable to understand why that which was
possible in the Ukraine may be unthinkable in Russia." How on earth does the
writer know that Bush is unable to understand this? Twenty dollars to a euro
says he does.
.
Again, commenting in the Wall Street Journal, the trendy British historian
Niall Ferguson loftily admonishes Bush to do exactly what he is already doing
in Iraq and concludes: "That is why the president is more right than he knows
to reject calls for an arbitrary date" for U.S. withdrawal. How can Ferguson
possibly tell how right the president knows he is? Does he have a direct feed
into Bush's brain?
.
Another commentator claimed to have proved that Bush was hostile to European
integration because he hardly ever mentioned the European Union. But in one of
his best speeches, in London in November 2003, Bush said: "My nation welcomes
the growing unity of Europe, and the world needs America and the European Union
to work in common purpose for the advance of security and justice."
.
And this to the German Bundestag in May 2002: "When Europe grows in unity,
Europe and America grow in security. When you integrate your markets and share
a currency in the European Union, you are creating the conditions for security
and common purpose. In all these steps, Americans do not see the rise of a
rival, we see the end of old hostilities."
.
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made virtually identical statements
during her European tour this month, Europeans hailed them as long overdue
recognition of the EU by the Bush administration. Did they not hear the same
message when Bush delivered it?
.
There is, of course, one other possible explanation: that Europeans hear what
Bush says and don't believe it, while they believe his new secretary of state.
Perhaps that's some kind of progress. Thomas Friedman, a New York Times
columnist, recently urged Bush simply to listen during his European trip and
not say anything at all. Listen, of course, he should. But let's hope some
Europeans are pleasantly surprised if they start listening to him.
.
(Reginald Dale is editor of the policy quarterly European Affairs and a media
fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.)
.
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