A Shamed American

More and more these days, I read what the rest of the world thinks of our Bush dominated United States. Originally, I supported Mr. Bush, generally, except for his christian-fanatic take on some subjects. Now, I'm simply ashamed for us.

The rest of the world sees us as a nation too weak or stupid to stop an international and domestic bully. For example, here's an excerpt from The Hindu about Bush's upcoming visit to India:

" ... on the 2nd of March, Bush will be taken to visit Gandhi's memorial in Rajghat. He's by no means the only war criminal who has been invited by the Indian Government to lay flowers at Rajghat. (Only recently we had the Burmese dictator General Than Shwe - no shrinking violet himself.) But when George Bush places flowers on that famous slab of highly polished stone, millions of Indians will wince. It will be as though he has poured a pint of blood on the memory of Gandhi.

We really would prefer that he didn't.

It's not in our power to stop Bush's visit. It is in our power to protest it, and we will. The Government, the Police and the Corporate Press will do everything they can to minimize the extent of our outrage. Nothing the Happynews Papers say can change the fact that all over India from the biggest cities to the smallest villages, in public places and private homes - George W. Bush, incumbent President of the United States of America, world nightmare incarnate, is just not welcome."

Condoleezza Rice had to be informed of the reasonable and logical approach to the Hamas government in Palestine. You'd think she would have been able to figure this out for herself, but, she, smart as she is, has been around Mr. Bush so long that she has bought into the strategy: "Prejudge, then stick to your guns."

From Le Monde, here is a condensation of what the arabs had to explain to our Secretary of State:

Allow for an initial grace period and refrain from making Palestinians pay for a political agenda yet-to-be outlined by the fledgling Hamas government. This essentially is the message that was addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during her tour of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

It seems like an obvious, logical approach doesn't it? That is, let's, at least, wait for Hamas to form a government and establish policies before we condemn them. I still think Hamas is in a no win situation, but what harm does it do to see if they can extricate themselves?

When a French newspaper commented on how Mr. Bush "struts" around, Bush's comment was "in Texas we call that walking." I'd suggest that some lessons in "walking softly" are in order.