Posted on 11/03/2004 11:30:20 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
PARIS – The American people may have been deeply divided over their choice of leader, but the rest of the world is remarkably unanimous in its message to the new US president: "Don't ignore us." "But don't boss us around, either," say political analysts and ordinary citizens from China to Brazil, asked for their advice to the newly reelected President Bush as he looks forward to a second term of office likely to be dominated by the global "war on terror."
Few other countries would have chosen George W. Bush over John Kerry, international polls have revealed. But nobody anywhere doubts the impact that the US president has on his or her life.
If there is one task to which foreigners would like to see Mr. Bush devote himself, to judge by dozens of interviews on four continents, it is to restore America's reputation as a fair and honest arbiter of world affairs, damaged by what many abroad see as the administration's tendency to throw its weight around in its own narrow interests.
"Given that [the president] heads the most powerful nation in the world but that it has the worst reputation of all time, there is a paradox," says Stanley Symington, a retired marketing executive in England. "He should pay more attention to restoring America's reputation in the world, rather than to guarding its security."
It would help, suggests Jagjit Bagga, as he walks around a fashionable shopping center in New Delhi, if the president adopted a more diplomatic tone with the rest of the world. "America shouldn't be arrogant when it deals with other countries," he says. "It comes across that what they choose to do, they will do it and then expect others to follow."
That perception undermines international support for American goals, though many people in many countries share them, says Jeanne Lescure, a retired French Metro worker. "I understand that [Bush] is worried about security," she says. "We are all worried about it. But he goes about things the wrong way."
A more productive approach, suggests Karsten Voigt, a top adviser to German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, would be to pay more attention to America's friends.
"In the end even the world superpower USA needs allies and they can't get any better ones than the Europeans," he told German radio on Wednesday. "And in order to have Europe on their side they need to keep an open ear to our arguments."
The most immediate and crucial test of such efforts, it is widely felt, will come in Iraq, now that even the fiercest opponents of the US-led invasion fear for the international fallout if Baghdad descends into civil war.
"If I could sit down with Bush, the first thing I would do is see how he could leave Iraq in a coherent fashion, with his head high and without dividing the European allies," says Catherine Durandin, an analyst at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations, a think tank in Paris.
That is a goal broadly shared in the Middle East. "This is the issue I care most about," says Sumer Said, a young Egyptian woman who stayed up all night with friends in Cairo to watch the election returns. "I want to see the American forces leave as soon as possible. But it shouldn't be immediately because then there would be chaos. The best thing the American president could do would be to set a timetable for withdrawal."
On very different issues, Latin Americans would also like to see more cooperation from Washington. In particular, they want the US to negotiate a planned free trade agreement "not as another instrument designed to benefit the USA, but rather as something to benefit the continent as a whole," says Geraldo Monteiro, who teaches at the State University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
US subsidies and tariffs on products such as orange juice, steel, and grain hobble their exporters, Brazilians argue. "Brazil has great potential and I think the United States should recognize that and stop retaliating," says Ronaldo Amaral, a teacher. "Then we can export and go head to head with the US."
Trade and investment issues top people's agendas in other developing countries too. In India, for example, New Delhi is anxious to see Washington loosen up import and export regulations and resist the popular urge to punish US firms that close factories and call-centers at home to set up shop overseas.
"As far as most Indians are concerned, economic issues are more important than diplomatic issues," says Anurag Agarwali, a corporate accountant.
The same is true of Africa. "Don't give us more aid money," advises headhunter Peter Lotter as he sips a coffee in a Johannesburg mall. "Help us get more factories."
Washington could also help by expanding a US law that allows African countries making progress towards good government to export certain goods - from clothing to gum arabic - duty free to the United States. "The only way to get African governments and dictators to recognize that the day of their fiefdoms is over is by waving a big carrot in front of them," argues Raymond Louw, editor of Southern Africa report.
Beyond issues where the next US president could demonstrate his respect for global concerns rather than US interests, two eastern giants would like Washington to clarify its attitudes towards them.
One is China, whose relations with the US got off to a rocky start when Bush first took office over trade disputes, Taiwan's status, and a downed US spy plane.
"First of all, the administration should realize that China is a partner, not a competitor," says Jia Qingguo, associate dean of international studies at Beijing University. "They need to make this a strategic and consistent decision."
The other is Russia, where the government's increasingly authoritarian approach appears to have given US policymakers pause for thought. "It is time for America to decide whether Russia is a democratic market economy that could become a full partner, or whether it views Russia as something else entirely," says Mr. Kremeniuk. "On the basis of that assessment, set a strategy we can all work with."
In Western Europe, and particularly in France, the hope is that friends will not be treated as enemies. "Just because we don't agree on everything we shouldn't be classed as enemies," says Ludmilla Crestia, a French student. "Bush does not see us as an ally and I'd like him to change his mind."
In the Middle East, however, Palestinians and some Israelis would like to see the next US administration treat its friends a little more sternly. As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepares to pull out from Gaza, American "pressure is needed so that the withdrawal will not be from Gaza only" but from the West Bank too, says Mordechai Bloom, an Israeli bookstore owner in Jerusalem.
"No American president has given more to the Israeli rightists than Bush," complains Hafez Barghouthi, editor of the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. Now, he says, Washington should not allow Mr. Sharon to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza, and instead force him to negotiate a peace settlement with the Palestinian Authority.
It is not only the Israelis and Palestinians who need America to resolve their problems, argues Ms. Durandin, the French political analyst. Given its overwhelming power, "we all need America," she says. "And there is a great desire, all over the world, to recognize an America we can like."
• Scott Baldauf in New Delhi; Andrew Downie in Rio de Janeiro; Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem; Abraham McLaughlin in Johannesburg, South Africa; Kathleen McLaughlin in Shanghai, China; Dan Murphy in Cairo; Mark Rice-Oxley in London; Andreas Tzortzis in Berlin; and Fred Weir in Moscow contributed to this report.
Don't boss us around or seek to turn others against us for your own state's gain, France, and we can "leave you alone".
We'd rather you tend to yourself, anyway.
Memo to the World: You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists. Choose wisely.
Personal memo to the Christian Science Monitor: Shut the F*ck up.
You see, that kind of arrogant statemetn, while true just ruffles feathers.
The headline should have read: World to Bush: you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
This is a about diplomacy people. The administration can still do what it wants, it just has to be diplomatic about it.
Relationships are the same whether they are between people or countries. The US is not the CEO of a company. It is just the biggest and richest of a group of friends. We can lead, but we can't expect our friends to listen to us if we don't listen to them like we are friends.
Sure there is a danger out there and that needs to be recognized. But it is a danger that requires cooperation to overcome.
The Bush administration has never given enough time and energy to diplomacy. This si one of the reasons why the eletion was even as close as it was. Let's not forget that Bush should have won 60% of the vote. He is doing the right things, but he sure is not saying it. I took heart in his speech yesterday and hope he backs it up with the same policies combined with more patient and sensitive rhetoric.
To all you with us or against us hotheads out there: The choice is never between others listening to us or not. It is between getting what we want alone or getting what we want with support. The former is fast and reckless. The latter requires patience and skill. The penalities of the former are as great as the rewards of the latter.
Yep. And the CSM is a snotty rag that's available for free in our universities, which propaganda and target grows more active Dems like fungus.
probably forged by dan rather.
HEY FRANCE! eat my shorts
it's oxy-moron time again.
Bush Memo to Globals: drop and give me 20.
Bush memo to Global Ninnies: Got Carriers?!
She sure is a babe!
However:
a) America has spent more blood and treasure than any other country on the planet to ensure the safety and security of our friends and neighbors.
b) America is the world's only (current) superpower. FACT - sorry if you don't approve.
c) Diplomacy doesn't work when your "allies" have been bribed by the enemy. Friends like that we need like a heart attack. We are the world's biggest contributor (by far) to the UN. What has that magnanimous gesture every bought for us?
d) Diplomacy moves too slowly (usually) in the face of modern threats. If we cannot count on our "allies" when the chips are down, why bother having them in the first place?
e) Call it arrogance if you like, but America can go it alone if we have to. Most of the other countries of the world would quickly cave into internal and external threats, and would fold up were it not for the continuing support of the USA. f) "Patient" and "sensitive" rhetoric has never bought us a gram of security - hard nosed belligerence (and the known willingness to back it up) HAS scared many threats into submission.
In a post-911 world, we cannot take the time to run around being "diplomatic" in the face of clear, present, and catestrophic threats. In the final analysis, it comes down to what I posted the first time - choose wisely.
I doubt that there is any European leader who is as warm and diplomatic as President Bush.
Putin leads praise for U.S. choice
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1269182/posts
I beg to differ. It's just that the msm wasn't reporting Bush's diplomacy. The msm took it upon themselves to characterize his diplomacy. The American people have voted, showing their confidence in Bush's policies. The margins would have been even greater if the msm hadn't lied to the American people and spun for the Left.
Translation: do whatever we tell you, spend your money and shed your blood fixing our problems and always remain properly servile and respectful.
Proper response: nuke Paris and repeat elsewhere as necessary.
Billshut! Bush has given time to diplomacy, it's the French and Germans who were awash with "Oil For Food" money that would not listen. These leaders were holding out hoping that Bush would lose this election. Well guess what? They are going to have to deal with him for four more years. We went through the same thing with Reagan. When Reagan won re-election, suddenly all of his detractors overseas, especially in the Kremlin, began to take him much more seriously, and were much kinder. I suspect the same will happen with President Bush as well.
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