Editorial»
You gotta have friends
NOV 22 - So I step off the plane in London and the British customs guy sees on my form that I’m a journalist and asks, “Is it true there are more police to protect your president in London than there are in Baghdad?” Then I pick up The Independent and I see that London’s left-wing mayor, Ken Livingstone, has denounced President George W. Bush as “the greatest threat to life on this planet that we’ve most probably ever seen.”
Then I check out The Guardian, which carried open letters to the president, one of which is from the famous playwright Harold Pinter, who says: “Dear President Bush, I’m sure you’ll be having a nice little tea party with your fellow war criminal, Tony Blair. Please wash the cucumber sandwiches down with a glass of blood.” .No Dorothy, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.
We’re in Britain, America’s closest ally in the Iraq war - a country where Bush still has many supporters, but also a legion of detractors. But if this is how some of America’s best friends are talking, imagine how difficult it is going to be to win over America’s more ambivalent allies - to widen support for the rebuilding of Iraq.
To be sure, some people will never be winnable because they hate America above all else. (That may explain why you don’t see any protesters here carrying signs saying, “Death to bin Laden,” “Saddam: How many Iraqis did you kill today?” or “Mr. Bush: Thanks for believing in Arab democracy.”)
But there is also a whole constituency in Europe and the Middle East who are upset with Bush because of what he does, not who he is. They can be won over, or at least neutralized, so their governments can be more supportive on Iraq. But it will require a policy lobotomy by the Bush team.
Tom Malinowski, from Human Rights Watch, perfectly described Bush’s core problem: When you look at the muted reaction to the president’s important speech on the need for democracy in the Arab world, you see that “President Bush has moral clarity, but no moral authority.” He has a vision - without influence among the partners needed to get it moving. His is a beautifully carved table - with only one leg.
The Bush team’s decision to change course in Iraq, and to transfer authority by July 1 to an interim government indirectly elected by community leaders from each of Iraq’s 18 governates, is a good new start for generating legitimacy for the U.S. presence in Iraq.
I do not know if this plan will work, but those who dismiss it as a cut-and-run strategy have it wrong. This plan is actually the only way America can stay. Only a legitimate Iraqi authority can give cover for a long-term U.S. presence and do what it takes to finish
the war.Posted on: 2003-11-22 12:38
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