DETROIT -- George W. Bush has managed to alienate and antagonize so much of the world, you have to conclude it's intentional. And it goes well beyond our nation's real and perceived enemies. Bush treats our friends and allies with such disdain it will take decades to undo the damage his horrific policies and arrogant personality have caused.
We've managed to enrage the Arab world, unleash more violent Islamic extremism and effectively create an entire new generation of terrorists. That not only puts U.S. forces in deadly peril, but American civilians face hostility traveling nearly everywhere.
Then there is Europe. Bush doesn't care about the French and Germans and what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld dismissed as "old Europe." Just toss out the heritage and ancestral lands of so many of our people and much of the richness of our culture. All done in a moment of presidential petulance because they refused to buy his war in Iraq and the phony rationales for the invasion.
An aside. A new poll shows a majority of the American people, at long last, now believes President Bush's stated reasons for going after Iraq were false. Praise the Lord! After the most deceptive, yet effective, government propaganda campaign in our nation's history, people are finally waking up and understanding the truth that so many, especially in Europe, understood long ago.
Our big European ally in the Iraq adventure is Great Britain, and that's where George W. Bush will be this week for a state visit. He'll do a lot of chumming up with his favorite lapdog, Prime Minister Tony Blair, and they'll both try to put a chipper face on the deteriorating situation in Iraq.
Bush will spend most of his time at Buckingham Palace, hanging out with the cretins from the genetically challenged Battenberg family, aka the House of Windsor.
They'll chat about things dear to them -- dynasty, the burdens of empire, the ups and downs of British gin, fretting about the rabble and other sobering thoughts.
The president will not address Parliament, because his handlers are afraid he'd get heckled. He probably would. After a few Aussie politicians hooted at him in their parliament, the Bush crowd forever crossed out visits to such democratic forums.
While Blair, Rupert Murdoch's newspapers and the British elite liked the Iraq war, the people, just plain folks in the U.K., have different ideas and they won't be shy about expressing them.
Massive demonstrations are planned and, unlike in the United States, where the Secret Service and local police departments keep protesters at a distance in Orwellian "free speech zones," the president may actually be forced to see and hear the protesters.
The British public has some harsh judgments on the American president. On the eve of his visit, a poll shows more than one in three Brits -- 37 percent -- say George W. is stupid, and 33 percent say he's incoherent. They can be harsh.
Back on our side of the Atlantic, Bush has managed to thoroughly antagonize our closest neighbor nations, Mexico and Canada.
Much was made of Bush's initial friendship with Mexican President Vincente Fox. When he made the first state visit of his presidency to Mexico, breaking the long tradition of going to Canada first, much was made of the strong bonds and friendship between Bush and the Mexican leader.
But in rapid succession, Bush found ways to alienate Fox. First the execution of a Mexican national in Texas caused a furor. When he was arrested in 1988, he was not told he had the right to contact the Mexican consulate for help. That was a clear violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on consular relations. The pope, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Fox pleaded with Bush to spare the man's life.
Showing his disdain for international law and his passion for the death penalty, and knowing its popularity in Texas politics, Bush refused to intervene and the execution proceeded. Fox was infuriated that Bush ignored his pleas and chose to pursue his political benefit.
The president has also ignored Mexico's position that immigration reform is needed and visiting workers deserve better status.
Finally, Fox refused to yield to enormous pressure from Bush and would not support the war in Iraq. Bush refused a one-on-one meeting with Fox at the United Nations in September, and the relationship, once so promising, is now sore at best.
Oh, Canada! Now that's where U.S. relations are really cool. The president doesn't like retiring Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Bush has trouble dealing with people who object to his world view and Chretien certainly does.
The Canadian government, which sent forces to fight and die in Afghanistan, just would not buy the lies about Iraq and refused to support the war.
It was sickening to hear right-wing commentators bash Canadians, suggesting they were cowardly. Let me remind them that Canadian soldiers were dying fighting Hitler in 1939, three years before any American troops tangled with the Wehrmacht.
For decades, Canadian peace-keeping forces, under UN aegis, have performed valiantly around the world.
The Bush wrath toward Canada really got going when one of Chretien's top aides mumbled to reporters that the U.S. president was "a moron." The aide was fired, and the blunt-speaking prime minister tried to smooth things over, saying, "He is a friend of mine, he's not a moron at all."
The Bush crowd didn't appreciate the defense, especially since it was delivered in French.
The Canadians are still terribly upset over the accidental bombing in Afghanistan that left four of their soldiers dead. The U.S. F-16 pilots who dropped the bomb violated rules of engagement, standing orders and common sense, but a military tribunal let them off with a gentle slap on the wrist.
Another incident involved a Canadian citizen who was detained at New York's J.F.K. Airport as a suspected terrorist. Maher Arar was then deported to his native Syria and U.S. authorities didn't even bother telling the Canadian government what had happened and why. Arar was held in Syria for a year and says he was tortured.
The U.S. government never produced a shred of evidence that he was a terrorist, and refuses to offer any explanation about the case, in spite of demands from the Canadian government to know why one of their citizens was treated that way.
The president from Texas finds much about Canada alien and offensive. For starters, they have universal health care. What a radical notion.
Canadian prescription drug prices are government-controlled, making them affordable for most people. Americans are buying drugs from Canada, infuriating the pharmaceutical industry barons who pump millions of dollars into George W.'s campaign coffers.
The medical use of marijuana is legal in Canada. Imagine that. Gay unions have legal status, and there are strict gun laws. The Canadians have this strange idea that weapons for hunting and sport are fine, but arsenals for killing people and committing crimes don't make any sense.
The Canadians don't have the death penalty. Political debate in Canada is open and robust. The media is tough and hard-hitting. The CBC program "The Fifth Estate" recently did an extraordinary report on the Bush family connections with the bin Ladens and how the administration protects Saudi interests, even at the expense of U.S. security.
No. George W. does not like Canada. It's plain to see why.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | November 18 2003 |