hehehehe..

[Guest mehtab]

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.ppa?...p~US~journalist

US, its President most hated around the world

Thomas L. Friedman

Bush must overhaul Iraq policy to avoid total disaster. He can begin by firing Rumsfeld—today, not tomorrow or next week

We are in danger of losing something much more important than just the war in Iraq. We are in danger of losing America as an instrument of moral authority and inspiration in the world. I have never known a time in my life when America and its President were more hated around the world than today. I was just in Japan, and even young Japanese dislike us. It’s no wonder that so many Americans are obsessed with the finale of the sitcom Friends right now. They’re the only friends we have, and even they’re leaving.

This administration needs to undertake a total overhaul of its Iraq policy; otherwise, it is courting a total disaster for us all.

That overhaul needs to begin with President Bush firing Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld — today, not tomorrow or next month, today. What happened in Abu Ghraib prison was, at best, a fundamental breakdown in the chain of command under Rumsfeld’s authority, or, at worst, part of a deliberate policy somewhere in the military-intelligence command of sexually humiliating prisoners to soften them up for interrogation, a policy that ran amok.

Either way, the Secretary of Defence is ultimately responsible, and if we are going to rebuild our credibility as

instruments of humanitarian values, the Rule of Law and democratisation, in Iraq or elsewhere, Bush must hold his own Defence Secretary accountable. Words matter, but deeds matter more. If the Pentagon leadership ran any US company with the kind of abysmal planning in this war, it would have been fired by shareholders months ago.

I know that tough interrogations are vital in a war against a merciless enemy, but outright torture, or this <admin-profanity filter activated>-humiliation-for-entertainment, is abhorrent. I also know the sort of abuse that went on in Abu Ghraib prison goes on in prisons all over the Arab world everyday, as it did under Saddam — without the Arab League or Al-Jazeera ever saying a word about it. I know they are shameful hypocrites, but I want my country to behave better — not only because it is America, but also because the war on terrorism is a war of ideas, and to have any chance of winning we must maintain the credibility of our ideas.

We were hit on 9/11 by people who believed hateful ideas — ideas too often endorsed by some of their own spiritual leaders and educators back home. We cannot win a war of ideas against such people by ourselves. Only Arabs and Muslims can. What we could do — and this was the only legitimate rationale for this war — was try to help Iraqis create a progressive context in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world where that war of ideas could be fought out.

But it is hard to partner with someone when you become so radioactive no one wants to stand next to you. We have to restore some sense of partnership with the world if we are going to successfully partner with Iraqis.

Bush needs to invite to Camp David the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the heads of both NATO and the United Nations, and the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria. There, he needs to eat crow, apologise for his mistakes and make clear that he is turning a new page. Second, he needs to explain that we are losing in Iraq, and if we

continue to lose the US public will eventually demand that we quit Iraq, and it will then become Afghanistan-on-steroids, which will threaten everyone. Third, he needs to say he will be guided by the United Nations in forming the new caretaker government in Baghdad. And fourth, he needs to explain that he is ready to listen to everyone’s ideas about how to expand our force in Iraq, and have it work under a new UN mandate, so it will have the legitimacy it needs to crush any uprisings against the interim Iraqi government and oversee elections — and then leave when appropriate. And he needs to urge them all to join in.

Let’s not lose sight of something — as bad as things look in Iraq, it is not yet lost, for one big reason: America’s aspirations for Iraq and those of the Iraqi silent majority, particularly Shiites and Kurds, are still aligned. We both want Iraqi self-rule and then free elections. That overlap of interests, however clouded, can still salvage something decent from this war — if the Bush team can finally screw up the courage to admit its failures and dramatically change course.

Yes, the hour is late, but as long as there’s a glimmer of hope that this Bush team will do the right thing, we must insist on it, because America’s role in the world is too precious — to America and to the rest of the world — to be squandered like this.

New York Times

[V]

But if the world knew abot India

INDIANS president would take that spot!

[harps]

bump

[Karen Kaur]

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haha both of them aint great but bush is worser too bad he won oh well i aint american

wjkkwjkf!