Al, from the article you posted:
Dae Sook Suh, a Korea expert at the University of Hawaii, said it would be wrong to lay all blame for the North Korea crisis on Bush's phraseology. Instead, he said, a crisis was bound to arise during Bush's tenure because the 1994 agreement freezing North Korea's nuclear program was gradually unraveling. What the "axis of evil" speech did -- along with other unvarnished language, such as Bush calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Il a "pygmy" -- was accelerate it.
Words Seen as Rude
Blunt speech may be admired in the United States, Suh noted, but in Asia it is considered rude, threatening and unseemly, especially for a president.
"Bush may be going the right way in policy terms, but I don't applaud him for using this cowboy language in diplomatic circles," Suh said.
Suh has the right idea, especially about accelerating the inevitable, but I don't see why he thinks all of Asia considers Bush's words to be "rude." Maybe he personally holds Bush to a higher standard than Asia's own leaders, some of which spout propaganda that is downright blasphemous.
Tenchusatsu |
