On Wed, Mar 05, 2003 at 07:20:17AM -0500, John D. Giorgis wrote: > What opportunity? What nations would have supported such an > insitution as the arbiter of the solution for Iraq? I doubt that > even France or Germany would have done so, to say nothing of Iraq's > neighbors.
Bush could have spent more time and effort winning over the people of Europe from the time he was elected. I'm not very good at the politics of persuasion thing (one reason why I didn't go into politics), but even I can think of some things Bush could have done much better: -visited European countries more often and given speeches emphasizing the many areas of common interest between the US and Europe -either have joined World Court, or have done a much better job of explaining (to ordinary Europeans) why not and offering an alternative (preferably through a sort of League of Democratic States) -either have adopted Kyoto protocol, or have done a much better job of explaining (to ordinary Europeans) why not and offering a REAL alternative -be more matter-of-fact and even-handed and less religious and morally superior in advocating views -- emphasize freedom, democracy, human rights, civil liberties, humanitarian aid as the things America stands for; keep hammering these points home in speeches and sound-bites (perhaps it goes without saying, but follow policies at home that agree with his rhetoric) -keep repeating in speeches that the US values allies and wants to be part of a world community of liberal democratic states, and here is an outline of such a group, and let's have a summit to discuss it -not giving speeches calling a group of countries "axis of evil" -- in speeches, concentrate on one foe at a time instead of grouping them together, and more importantly, focus on the LEADERS or people directly responsible, and call them whatever they are by name, don't call entire countries (including, by implication, millions of people) evil. These are just off the top of my head, and as I said, I'm not good at this. I'm sure there are many more. The point is that Bush has a bad reputation as as arrogant and cowboy for a reason, and that is bad for America and bad for the world. Bush needs to pay more attention to persuading people around the world to America's point of view and America's friendliness and helpfulness. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
