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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_biscuit who wrote (473829)	10/10/2003 9:38:32 AM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769670

W's European critics as wrong as ones here For a couple of weeks, I have been away in Europe. My personal mission was to find out whether the reaction to what was going on in Iraq was as deliberately stupid and ugly as in the United States. Were the Europeans giving the Bush administration and America's armed forces full credit for wiping out Saddam Hussein and his government with astonishing speed? Or were Germany, France, Russia and a slew of other European countries that were supposed to be our staunch allies sneering and acting as if they believed the postwar situation would end with the United States being humiliated or defeated in a way that would allow its enemies to preen against it for decades? It is a crucial question, because if the Europeans succeed in forcing the United States to commit to stripping itself militarily and financially, it could mean that America would seriously weaken itself. It would take enormous effort to restore its losses. The danger of a weakened America would not even be imaginable if our coalition allies and the UN had come through for us with the military and political support that they should have given fully, not drop by drop. What I found in Europe is that, as in the United States, stink bombs are being thrown against the Bush administration day after day. Like their American counterparts, members of the European press pick up and broadcast charges that the President is a liar. One of the charges, I learned from Robert Bartley, the outstanding former editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page, came from Sen. Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, who said that the war was "a fraud." In July 1969, a young woman drowned in the car Sen. Kennedy drove off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. He swam to safety and called his friends and associates. For this, he got a two-month suspended sentence. This is the moment when Americans, including journalists, who do not believe the President of the United States is a liar should be saying so. Part of the problem is that President Bush has inherited a problem with the credibility of statements coming from the White House. Bill Clinton, his predecessor, lied not just on sexual matters but affairs of state. He once said that he would not allow American troops to fight in Bosnia. I thought that he was following a proper path. I had no doubt about that. He told me himself from his plane what the no-Bosnia policy would be. Another time, during his first presidential campaign, Clinton told the American public that he would order increased tariffs for Communist China if it did not reduce torture in its prison cells. Americans who believed in fighting for human rights rejoiced. A few months later, when Clinton took presidential office, he scrapped the promise. Unless Bush's enemies start more campaigns against the success of the American forces or slather them with more foul charges, I think the impact of their stink bombs and stink words will diminish. Enough. I did not write this column merely to denounce Americans and Europeans who disagree with the American attack on the fascist government of Saddam Hussein. But I do believe that these critics would not survive in a world under the command of one of the most vicious dictatorships in the world. I believe that the United States and its true allies are involved in a war against terror. I believe they will defeat the dictators who spread it round the world. But the campaign of hatred and terror against the United States makes the work of its armed forces far more difficult and dangerous. Americans and Europeans should remember that every hour. nydailynews.com