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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Watkins who wrote (150696)	11/2/2004 8:01:55 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 281500

Then I can answer both of your questions in one post. But first, let me say that I am not an Arab and I the time spend with them is limited. I do however travel a lot on business and have spent years in several countries between India and Spain. I can also "speak" 5 langauage and make heads or tails of a couple more, including Arabic. All this means that while I cannot speak for any community, I have a much better understanding of the middle easterners than the average joe. In most Arabs' minds, and in fact most Muslims', there is little if any difference between Israel and the US. Those of whom who have lived in the US or are living in Europe, tend to have a more moderate view, but even they are not happy with Bush. I have not found anyone that supports Bush. That said, like most people around the world, they are primarily concerned with their personal lives and issues like immigration will carry more weight with them than ME politics. As for the populace outside the US, it depends on whom you are dealing with. Not all those who support Bush are doing so for the reasons Neocons would be proud of. Iran for example is happy that Bush got rid of its two biggest enemies in the region. Furthermore, Bush's harsh stance and his "axis of evil" speech helped the fundamentalists against the reformists. As in the US, the more people are afraid of an outside enemy, the more likely they are to accept a brutal regime. So Bush in power means more stability for the Ayatollahs. A similar argument goes for some other factions. Politics makes for strange bedfellows. Some countries, such as Morocco, prefer Bush for economic reasons. There is now a pseudo-NAFTA agreement with Morocco and it can only get better under Bush. But these are just the governments. The people (and I just got back from SEA, including Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as the Mediterranean) are overwhelmingly against Bush. The most pro-Bush I was at was Australia. But even there the PM got into hot water for his close relationship with Bush, despite doing a good job on the economy. BTW, in Sydney a British cab driver was quoting me Bush as saying, "Not only the French are poor businessmen, they don't even have a word for entrepreneur"! ST