-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,591892,00.html
}}}>Begin
Schoolboy politics
Bush hits the wrong note at the UN
Leader
Monday November 12, 2001
The Guardian
As his 80% job approval ratings continue to show, George Bush knows
how to talk to Americans. Two months after the terrorist attacks,
most Americans still want their president to tell them that they are
the world's good guys, and Mr Bush is not the kind of man to want to
disappoint them on that, as last week's Atlanta speech proved. But Mr
Bush and his speechwriter are far less effective at talking to the
rest of the world, as the president's weekend speech to the UN's
general assembly showed.
Mr Bush lectured the nations of the world as though they were a bunch
of disobedient schoolkids. The time for action had arrived. Leaders
around the world "must now carefully consider their responsibilities
and their future". Every regime that sponsored terror would have to
pay a price. There could be no exceptions to this comprehensive
commitment. It was time for the United Nations to prove itself.
It doubtless went down well with the US television audience. But Mr Bush said almost
nothing about any of the other issues that actively matter to the rest of the world.
Nothing about poverty and debt. Nothing about the n
uclear weapons or the arms trade. Nothing about global warming. There was a brief
reference in favour of combating Aids and not much more than a passing reference to
the Middle East. Frankly, it was all a bit rich.
Mr Bush was right to call on all nations to support the US against the terrorist
threat. But to talk as though this is the unique issue of importance in the world, or
as though everyone needs to change except the United S
tates, was both insulting and alarming. It is insulting because Mr
Bush leads a party and a nation that until September 11 have been
cavalier, to put it mildly, in its support for the UN, for
multilateral agreements and even, in some perspectives, for the fight
against terrorism. It was alarming because, beneath its apparent
multilateralist shell, Mr Bush's speech was still conspicuously
unresponsive to any agenda other than that of the US itself.
There have been suggestions that September 11 may divert Bush to a
more multilateral path. The UN speech raises big doubts about that.
It was undoubtedly different from the one the president would have
given if America had not been attacked. But it was not the speech of
a leader who appears willing to engage with the world, except when it
suits his own interests. Perhaps that was why Mr Bush's speech was
heard, until the end, in silence.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
End<{{{
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