To: LTK007 who wrote (5384 ) 3/7/2003 7:40:26 PM From: mishedlo Read Replies (3) | Respond to Bully Bushslate.msn.com The president is botching the Iraq crisis with his clumsy, naive unilateralism. In a remark that must have sent diplomatic eyeballs rolling, Fleischer said it didn't matter that Saddam was finally dismantling his Al-Samoud missiles, which are prohibited by U.N. resolutions because their range exceeds 150 kilometers. To avoid war, Fleischer said, Saddam must not only disarm totally but step down from power. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has cast his lot with Bush at some political risk, felt compelled to dissociate himself from this statement, for it reinforced the widespread suspicion that Bush considers the inspections a ruse, that war is inevitable, and that there's nothing anyone, least of all Saddam Hussein, can do to forestall it. For now, though, the man who campaigned on a foreign policy of earning respect through strength and humility is widely seen, feared, even loathed as a bully who doesn't give a damn what anyone thinks of him or his country. And this impression is weakening America, not strengthening it. His hard-sell tactics are backfiring. The Philippines, of all places, last week recanted on an earlier agreement to let 1,200 American soldiers fight Islamic terrorists on its soil. The leaders of Canada and Mexico, whose good will was once taken for granted, are mystified to the point of anger that Bush refuses even to glance at a compromise U.N. resolution that would give Saddam Hussein till the end of March to fulfill all his obligations to disarm and would set specific goals and deadlines along the way.Even Bush's own high-level aides are worried about his intransigence, which is approaching reckless endangerment.
