In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
WINNING OVER THE HEARTS OF EUROPEAN
COUNTRIES
[Shamim A Siddiqi, New York]
Since his reelection, President Bush has probably “realized” that
his foreign policy in his first term was quite damaging to the interest and
prestige of the USA and hence he must try his best now to win over the hearts
of the world, especially that of the Europe that had mostly opposed his
“unproductive” preemptive attack on Iraq on flimsy grounds. Mr. Putin of Russia was another dimension of his foreign
policy to keep him under the “friendly fold” of America and that he does not become
too “friendly” to the “axis of power.” With the above in view, last week President
Bush made a highly motivated trip to Belgium,
Germany and Slovakia where he planned to meet Mr. Putin of Russia
in a very reconciliatory tone. It was in the wake of the week-long whirlwind
earlier tour of Europe and Asia Minor of his
Secretary of State, Dr. Rice, preparing ground for his visit.
However, it appears that both the
highly publicized trips could not yield the desired results. Europe
is not prepared as a whole to forget as yet its sidetracking by Bush during the
Second Gulf War. Even his fast friend PM of UK,
Tony Blair appears to be distancing himself as the elections of Britain are on
his head and he is losing ground to the Conservative Party. His position is
shaky and he may lose the forthcoming elections as it has happened in Spain in the post-Saddam era and the aftermath
of the “conquest” of Iraq.
President Bush could “hardly” muster support from the 25 members of the ECM
just to the extent of training the future army of Iraq
with a paltry budget of only about six hundred thousand dollars in comparison
to America’s of commitment
of 80 Billion in Iraq
in the current financial year of 2005. They made no financial commitment at
all. President Bush still has to go a long way to win over the hearts and minds
of Europe. Most of European public are against
Mr. Bush’s war on Iraq
and human rights policies both at home and abroad. One could easily read the
minds of the people from their huge throng outside the halls where President
Bush was delivering his “sermons” with friendly gestures for a uniform foreign
policy across Atlantic Ocean. His position in
the eyes of Europe was more visible from
different cartoons and banners that people were holding and displaying outside.
His encounter with President
Putin of Russia
was more realistic. He confirmed to maintain the democratic trends in Russia but it
would be as per needs and urgencies of his country and not what is envisaged by
President Bush. He also categorically
denied toeing down the lines of the USA
in the case of Iran
though on principle he agreed to work for the non-proliferation of nuclear
technology to others. In defiance of the expressed desire of President Bush,
Russia has signed today [Sunday] an agreement with Iran to build a nuclear
reactor at Bushehr in Southern Iran, producing 1,000 megawatts of electricity
with the only condition that all spent nuclear fuel will be returned back to
Russia. This would be the first nuclear plant for Iran. President Bush could not stop
it instead of various threats and intimidation to Iran
from him and his ally, Israel.
It is not clear that how President
Bush would mingle together his desire to introduce the “democratic” process in
the Muslim world and, on the other hand, his “going” out of the way to appease
the European countries to stand by him and support his policies of threat and
“intimidation to Syria and Iran, while physically “occupying” many Muslim
countries. He is forgetting that the world is fast coming out of the tutelage of
mega-superpower to multi-superpower system in the wake of growing power of ECM,
China, India and Latino America. The people sitting at the
helm of our affairs have to realize that globalization of American values [that
are in fact mostly Islamic values] cannot be spread and established in the
community of nations with force, game of intimidation, policies of exploitation
through multinational corporations, covert activities of state agencies but
openly with love for mankind, service to humanity, equality and justice to all
and malice to none. Through this open-hearted policy the USA has still a lot of
potentials to win over the hearts and minds of the people of Europe, Asia,
Africa and Latin America where murmuring against American policies are fast growing out of
proportion at an alarming speed.
The way President Bush could not
force Iran to give up its
nuclear program for peace, the manner he could not coerce South Korea so for to accept his terms and
condition to give up its nuclear program; similarly, his efforts to intimidate Syria and Iran are falling apart. If Israel
comes to his “help” it would be another Himalayan blunder as his entire peace
efforts in the Middle East, democratization process in the Muslim world and
enticing Europe to His side will fail. As a result, American forces will be bogged
down in Afghanistan and Iraq for a long
time to come, creating only unrest in the minds of American people. In its wake
only the USA
will bear the surmounting burden of loan and inflating budget deficits at an
accelerated pace.
President Bush has still to serve
as president of this vast country for four years. If he does not mend his ways
and manner of governing the affairs of this country in the manner envisaged
above, he will destroy America’s
hard earned prestige in a “foolish” way, leaving the American people only in an
“illusion” of supremacy as the “greatest” power in history. Supremacy that
comes through an ideology, peace and human approach lasts for centuries
together [as in the case of Muslim civilization] but when it comes through
force, high handedness, double-dealings and brutality it may last [as in the
case of British, French and now the USA] for a few decades only and then
withers away.
Would President Bush prefer to
take a lesson from history that has passed and from his own history-making
efforts that are in full swing?
Shamim A Siddiqi
February 27, 2005
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