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09/11/2003 Archived Entry: "What Bush threw away."
What Bush threw away.
In the days following 9/11/2001, there was a world-wide outpouring of shared grief and support toward this country. You can get a reminder of the scope of our support, here.
And just two short years later, this is how the world views this country.
In the two years since Sept. 11, 2001, the view of the United States as a victim of terrorism that deserved the world's sympathy and support has given way to a widespread vision of America as an imperial power that has defied world opinion through unjustified and unilateral use of military force."A lot of people had sympathy for Americans around the time of 9/11, but that's changed," said Cathy Hearn, 31, a flight attendant from South Africa, expressing a view commonly heard in many countries. "They act like the big guy riding roughshod over everyone else."
In interviews by Times correspondents from Africa to Europe to Southeast Asia, one point emerged clearly: The war in Iraq has had a major impact on public opinion, which has moved generally from post-9/11 sympathy to post-Iraq antipathy, or at least to disappointment over what is seen as the sole superpower's inclination to act pre-emptively, without either persuasive reasons or United Nations approval.
To some degree, the resentment is centered on the person of President Bush, who is seen by many of those interviewed, at best, as an ineffective spokesman for American interests and, at worst, as a gunslinging cowboy knocking over international treaties and bent on controlling the world's oil, if not the entire world.
How far we have fallen. All due to the actions of one man. We should be outraged.
Replies: 5 people speak up
worst president ever.
im agnostic, but bush has almost made me believe in the bible, well, revelations anyway, he just fits into it all so well. hes the ANTICHRIST FOR A NEW AMERICAN CENTURY. god, if you exist, we could use some help
Posted by justin @ 09/11/2003 05:11 PM NY
wow, slow day in here, im responding to myself. not really related, but bill oreilly has just announced that we are in world war 3. finally, someone has said it, but oreilly? one of bush's biggest apologists? well he means it in a different sense than i do, i mean it in the sense of america as germany, rather than the muslims as germany, but either way, welcome to the armageddon
Posted by justin @ 09/11/2003 08:09 PM NY
Remember: every time you hear pResident bush speak of "the lessons of 9/11", that is code for "you are all too fearful and ignorant and afraid of being labeled unpatriotic to dare question me".
Posted by pat @ 09/11/2003 10:31 PM NY
That Miserable Failure has had me muttering to myself since 11-05-00. But he didn't squander worldwide goodwill alone. To recap: Rumsfeld's trampling of NATO and Old Europe; Perle & Wolfie's declarations about UN irrelevance; Condi doing her best Cruella deVille on traditional allies; "Fermez la" Boucher and his "chocolate-makers" remark, even while the administration is desperate for world support. This is the worst administration ever.
Posted by Peanut @ 09/12/2003 04:08 AM NY
true, but all those things can be blamed on bush, because they work for him (although it certainly looks like he works for them from my vantage point). the thing that amazes me is that i just saw him speaking live, and he still has the audicity to use the "keeping the worlds worst weapons out of the worlds worst leaders" line, even though there were no weapons, and no matter how many times he says it, it wont make it true
Posted by justin @ 09/12/2003 10:26 AM NY
