To assure his reelection on Nov. 2, US President George W. Bush appears unhesitant about playing the isolationist card, belittling Democratic challenger John Kerry's commitment to greater cooperation with US allies.
"Remember the last debate, my opponent said that America must pass a global test before we use force to protect ourselves," Bush said in their second debate on Friday night. "That's the kind of mindset that says sanctions were working. That's the kind of mind-set that says let's keep it at the United Nations and hope things go well."
Bush, who in his first term embraced the doctrine of preemptive war, has been playing on voters' deep-seated isolationist sentiments, harking back to the Reagan era of the 1980s.
"I recognize I've made some decisions that have caused people to not understand the great values of our country," he said. "I remember when Ronald Reagan was the president.
"He stood on principle. Some might have called that stubborn, ... standing up to the Soviet Union. And we won that conflict. Yet at the same time, he was very -- we were very unpopular in Europe because of decisions he made."
Bush, 58, without extensive personal experience outside the US, appears little interested in foreign relations and is at virtually ever juncture in sharp contrast with his 60-year-old opponent.
Kerry was educated in Switzerland, speaks fluent French and has spent much of his 20 years in the US Senate in foreign relations matters.
Rather than suffering from that comparison, Bush wants to turn it to his advantage, demonizing other countries, particularly those in Europe, that opposed the war he launched on Iraq in March last year.
"I will never allow other nations to veto America's national security decisions," he reiterated in a campaign speech in Waterloo, Iowa, Saturday, drawing cheers from the friendly audience.
Bush, however, praises countries like Britain, Italy and Poland that sent troops to support the US war effort in Iraq.
Responding to Kerry's criticism that his policies have isolated the US, Bush on Friday retorted: "You tell Tony Blair we're going alone. Tell Silvio Berlusconi we're going alone. Tell Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland we're going alone. We've got 30 countries there."
It goes unsaid in these speeches that the limited coalition Bush enumerates pales against that put together by his father, former President George H.W. Bush, in 1991 to oust the Iraqi invaders from Kuwait.
Iraq is not the only theme on which Bush gives rein to his isolationist rhetoric in attacking Kerry.
The Democratic challenger, Bush said in his Saturday radio address, "supports the International Criminal Court, where unaccountable foreign prosecutors could put American troops on trial in front of foreign judges."
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS