|
Note secretary Powell's response to criticism:'This suggestion that you sometimes see in intellectual circles...'. Ah, Ha! pointy head intellectuals are trying to bring America down!
A really good background book for this kind of a response is Richard Hofstadter's 'Anti-Intellectualism in American Life' (1962), which traces the tradition from the earliest years of the Republic. At times it has dominated the polittical discourse in this country to such an extent that the Founders of the Republic take on the aspect of aliens from outer space! I suppose that one big reason that Washington's Farewell Adress to the Nation is rarely consulted in forming the basic principles of foreign policy is precisely because the intricate composition of the speech makes him sound like an intellectual, Heaven forbid!
France Upbraids U.S. as 'Simplistic'
Suzanne Daley New York Times Service
Thursday, February 7, 2002
Vedrine Assails Unilateral Policy
PARIS Frustration with President George W. Bush's world view burst into the open here Wednesday as Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine openly criticized Washington's approach to terrorism as 'simplistic.'
'Today we are threatened by a new simplistic approach that reduces all the problems in the world to the struggle against terrorism,' Mr. Vedrine said during a lengthy interview on France-Inter radio. 'This is not well thought out.'
Mr. Vedrine suggested that Europeans would need to speak out more and more because they faced a United States that acted 'unilaterally, without consulting others, taking decisions based on its own view of the world and its own interests.'
Taking a specific example of U.S.-$ European differences, Mr. Vedrine lashed out at that way the White House was putting pressure on the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, calling the isolation of Mr. Arafat 'another error' that Europe could not go along with.
'European countries do not agree with the White House Middle East policy and think it is a mistake to support Ariel Sharon's purely repressive policies,' he said.
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, European leaders quickly rallied to support of the United States, vowing solidarity with Washington's determination to root out terrorism.
But since Mr. Bush's State of the Union speech, which was seen here as evidence of Washington's single-minded drive to broaden its war on terror, signs of dissent have been growing.
Many leaders are drawing a sharp distinction between attacks on Afghanistan, justified as self-defense, and attacks on other countries like Iraq or Iran and North Korea, countries that Mr. Bush dubbed part of an 'axis of evil' that threatened the world. Mr. Vedrine's comments may be the harshest yet, but other European leaders have also begun to distance themselves from Washington.
Even Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, Washington's leading partner in the war in Afghanistan, has cautioned against any military strike against Iraq unless a clear connection is found between Baghdad and the Sept. 11 attacks.
On visit to Washington last week, the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, dismissed Mr. Bush's speech as political grandstanding. He said the speech was 'best understood by the fact that there are midterm congressional elections in November.'
Over the weekend, Defense Minister Rudolf Sharping of Germany said he favored a political strategy for dealing with Iraq rather than a military one. The deputy foreign minister, Ludger Volmer, took a harsher line, flatly denying that there was any evidence that Iraq had been involved in recent terrorism. He warned that the United States should not use talk of terrorism to settle old scores with Iran.
On Tuesday the European Union got in the game, saying it would resist making an enemy of Iran in the widening war on global terrorism. European diplomats said that by lumping Iraq, Iran and North Korea together as rogue states, Mr. Bush was ignoring Europe's view that engagement was a way to support Iranian moderates.
The Spanish foreign minister, Josep Pique, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said at a news conference in Madrid that the 15-country bloc would be seek 'maximum cooperation' with Iran on trade, the fight against terrorism and human rights.
'We profoundly respect the opinions of the administration, our principal ally in every respect,' Mr. Pique said of the White House after talks with the visiting Iranian deputy foreign minister, Ali Ahani. But, he said, at the same time, members of the European Union 'think that it is very important to support the process of reform' in Iran.
In his remarks Wednesday, Mr. Vedrine said there were basic differences in the way France and the United States saw the world.
France wants rules that applied to equally to everyone and where decisions were made in consultation with others, the foreign minister said, but the United States does not want to be encumbered by any international accords and intends to do what is in its best interest.
'This is more clear than ever,' Mr. Vedrine said. 'It poses a serious problem.' Mr. Vedrine asserted that Washington's single-minded drive to broaden the war was wrongheaded because it failed to consider the root of terrorism.
'You have got to tackle the root causes, the situations, the poverty,' Mr. Vedrine said.
Powell Shrugs Off Rift
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday shrugged off the seriousness of the growing foreign policy feud between the United States and the European countries, Agence France-Presse reported from Washington.
'This suggestion that you sometimes see in intellectual circles that the United States is acting unilaterally and not consulting with our European partners simply could not be further from the truth,' Mr. Powell told the House International Relations Committee.
But he said that the United States would not sacrifice its own interests in the pursuit of multilateralism.
'We believe in multilateralism,' Secretary Powell said. 'But when it is a matter of principle and when the multilateral community does not agree with us, we do not shrink from doing that which we think is right, which is in our interest even if some of our friends disagree with us.'
Mr. Powell did not directly address Mr. Vedrine's comments.
|
|