George W. Bush is persona non grata: Americans abroad.

February 20, 2004

Much of the world sees President George W. Bush as a persona non grata. Unilateral actions, false intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and scandals from Halliburton to the president's National Guard service are giving America and its president a bad name. A raft of offensive statements by top diplomats have left the president with a major international image problem.

President Bush's latest boast--"I'm a war president"--was apparently meant to demonstrate his guts in an election year. But for many nations, his statement constituted an outright threat. In the aftermath of the Kay report on WMDs (or lack thereon in Iraq, foreign editorials have railed against a strategy of ends justifies the means in bringing about regime changes that respond to U.S. interests.

Given that the United States is not currently involved in a formal war, the president's bellicose language--"I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind"--has set other nations, allies and foes alike, on edge. Around the world, the administration's approach to international affairs has governments and their citizens feeling alienated and apprehensive.

In the Americas, Bush policies have lately provoked what must be a record number of diplomatic complaints. Most recently, the trial of a British intelligence officer for leaking a confidential memo has

reopened wounds in Mexico over a scheme in March to tap the phone lines of countries that refused to condone military action in Iraq.

Bush's front man for Latin America and the Caribbean, Roger Noriega, is hardly the diplomat to solve this growing image problem. Noriega, Asst. Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, has ruffled feathers throughout the region. In Mexico, he accused the country of playing "political games" in its relationship with the U.S., drawing an indignant response from the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In Argentina, Noriega publicly criticized the government's domestic policies and advocated that the Kirchner government break ties with Cuba. President Kirchner retorted: "We're through being used as a carpet ... nobody can sit us down and much less challenge us because we are an independent country with dignity."

The Bush administration has suffered a significant loss of leadership already as a result of snubbing its nose at diplomatic relations. Treated as children by clumsy and arrogant U.S. diplomats (Noriega also referred to Mexico's refusal to back the Iraqi invasion as "a misunderstanding of our common interests"), many nations are rebelling with angry rhetoric and contrary policies.

International trade meetings reflect this defiance. The failure of the World Trade Organization talks in Cancun, the implosion of the FTAA in Miami, and the lack of results at the Special Summit of the Americas in Monterrey are evidence of the mounting resistance to U.S.-tailored economic integration. They also reflect a widespread and deepening rejection of the "'our way or the highway" diplomacy of the Bush administration.

All this may not matter too much to Bush and his policy team. The neoconservative advisers charting this path have never put much stock in alliances. In the short view, animosity abroad can be seen as a small price to pay for global hegemony.

The administration's philosophy is that power is never negotiated--it is exercised. Belief in the unassailable power of the U.S. comes coupled with the conviction of the nation's divine mission in global affairs. As President Bush told the country in his State of the Union Address last month: "America acts in this cause with friends and allies at our side, yet we understand our special calling ..."

But what may seem sublime to some, appears ridiculous to many abroad--and dangerously so. As a result we are seeing a resurgence of some of the ugliest stereotypes of American bullying and hubris.

Worst of all, characteristics associated with the "war president" are increasingly being applied to common Americans as well. At the soccer match between Mexico and the U.S., the Mexican crowd broke out in chants of "Osama, Osama." Pro-terrorists? No, just anti-what the U.S. has come to represent in the world.

The Mumbai World Social Forum in India last month expressed similar, though somewhat more sophisticated, anti-American sentiments. Speakers and participants frequently crossed that delicate line between a criticism of U.S. foreign policy and censure of U.S. society as a whole.

As U.S. citizens, we can point to the polls that show Bush's popularity has dropped below 50 percent. We can remind the world that the president was not even elected by the majority of voters. But what we can't do is pretend that anti-Americanism doesn't exist. Among huge parts of the global population, George W. Bush has become not only a reviled political leader but a symbol of U.S. aggression.

Sadly, as global hostility grows, we could all be painted with the same brush.

Laura Carlsen is director of the Americas Program of the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC), online at: www.irc-online.org.

Confronting Globalization: Economic Integration & Popular Resistance in Mexico

Edited by Timothy A. Wise, Hilda Salazar, and Laura Carlsen Foreword by Jonathan Fox 

Contributors: Olivia Acuna Rodarte, Josefina Aranda Bezaury, Andres Barreda, Fernando Bejarano Gonzalez, David Barton Bray, Laura Carlsen, Enrique Cienfuegos, Leticia Merino, Pastoral Juvenil Obrera, Hilda Salazar Ramirez, Timothy A. Wise.

"Makes a unique contribution to enlightened thinking about 'globalization:" --Howard Zinn

Order online from the IRC at http://www.irc-online.org/books.php

Published by the Americas Program of the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC, online at www.irc-online.org). [c]2004. All rights reserved.

The Americas Program "A New World of Ideas, Analysis, and Policy Options"

Founded in 1979. the IRC is a small but dynamic nonprofit policy studies center whose overarching goal is to help forge a new global affairs agenda for the U.S. government and people--one that makes the United States a more responsible global leader and partner. For more information, visit www.americaspolicy.org or email [e-mail].

Recommended citation:

Laura Carlsen, "George W. Bush is persona non grata: Americans Abroad," Americas Program (Silver City, NM: Interhemispheric Resource Center, February 20, 2004).

Web location:

http:llwww.americaspolicy.orglcolumnslamprogl2004/0402bush.html

Production Information:

Writer: Laura Carlsen Editor: Tom Barry, IRC Layout: Tonya Cannariato, IRC

Reader Responses to Laura Carlsen's Column

You can hardly imagine what a relief your very wise piece is for a foreigner like me, who underwent a stunning metamorphosis from absolutely pro-U.S, to someone who feels a certain warmth at every bodybag shown on TV, coming out of Iraq. Bring 'em on! But don't worry, even the typical U.S.-redneck (pick-up with gun-rack) has not got the stomach in the long run to enjoy the role of international pariah. I know, I am a 56-year-old German!

--Germany

As an American expatriate, I enjoyed your story immensely. It reflects realistically the attitude I find everywhere I go in Austria, a country desperately hanging on to its neutrality. I am asked time and again "What about Boosch," and my answer is always the same, "Er ist ein Idiot."

I applauded his response to the 9/11 attacks; he really had no choice, but instead of continuing his full efforts to capture bin Laden, he turned his attention to another "evil doer" and crushed an impoverished nation in his attempt to crush its dictator.

"Evil" is more or less a religious term applied to those who don't follow the teachings of religious leaders. And that fits Bush's Sunday School mentality. Bush attacked Iraq without the slightest knowledge of its people, its culture, or its religion, and likely he never will. Saddam knew his people, and he predicted that we'd be in a quagmire, and we're in it. But was ridding the world of that evil man the real reason?

I don't think so. Rebuilding Iraq will require huge reconstruction contracts, and who gets them? American companies, and they'll be paid for with Iraqi oil. And who gets the oil? American oil companies, of course. And what is the background of out esteemed president? Oil, of course. And of our vice president? Oil, of course.

The arrogance of our administration is sickening. I wonder how much longer my fellow Americans will listen to the crap that comes from the White House. Is there no nation or group of nations that will stand up to Bush's administration?

The legacy he leaves for the next president, even if it's him, is one of continued attacks by radical Islamic groups against American interests, mistrust of our traditional allies and, most of all, growing mistrust by the American people of the government he claims to serve.

--Austria

I enjoyed your article and agree with you that sadly, U.S. citizens and the country as a whole, are getting dragged deep down into the slime because of the way George Bush is using his bully-boy political tactics to dominate and destroy foreign policy abroad.

Having lived in the U.S. for many years and now returned to the UK, I am shocked and horrified to see how a country can go down hill, as quickly, and how big business can dominate the system with so much corruption.

It certainly shows the world that it is not about people any longer, but big business, power (control) and wealth.

I am glad to be in the UK and ashamed of our own prime minister--Blair--for getting into bed with Bush and dragging our name through the slime at the same time.

--England

I lived in Mexico for 10 years from ('75 to '85) and could not convince Mexicans that America was bad news for the world.

But the shrub has done exactly that. Oust wish we apolitical, apathetic, brain-washed, and naive Americans would get some horse sense.) He's too arrogant to impeach, too ignorant to rule and too dumb to understand what is going on currently.

How can anybody (who works to make a living) in this country even think of voting for him? It's just amazing how stupid Americans are!

--USA

Having lived in Italy for almost 6 years I am not proud to say I'm American. I have said countless times to many people here, you know we all aren't like Bush and I am against them totally. I have to show that we are nice people too.

But right after 9-11 for a short few months the U.S. could have changed the world for Love and Respect for each other. But guess the american people are too caught up in themselves to have had it happen that way.

--Italy

Your article on our horrible ignorant, arrogant president is all too true. As an American who goes to Europe often, I feel the heat everywhere. They hate GW Bush. Now I fear that hate is transforming into anti-americanism on a broader scale. I know people there who refuse to have anything to do with "American" cigerettes, films, exchange programs, etc. This disgusting president has done all that. I will tell you what is happening, the whole world [minus our paid-off lackeys, governments only] is trying to destroy us. It is the world against the U.S. and Israel. It is that plain and simple. We are no longer admired and that is transforming itself into a fiscal debacle. As a response to this, GW and his neocons are increasing the threats, the bullying, the arm-twisting, further aggreivating the problem. WE MUST get this whole regime out of the white house or I truly believe we are doomed as a nation.

--USA

Does no one in "the home of the brave" have the guts to call George W. Bush a goddam liar? Is there no way to stop this demented dipstick from carrying on a war that could lead to decades of violence and kill millions?

Bush may be president of the great United States of America, but he has no credibility whatever with the majority of people around the world, many of whom consider him vastly more dangerous than Saddam Hussein. Bush's case for war is built entirely of lies, and nearly everyone outside the U.S. knows it.

Saddam had absolutely nothing to do with September 11, he is not connected to any terrorists, he's done nothing that would suggest that he may be planning to attack the U.S. or some other country, he definitely does not have nuclear weapons, and if he ever had the smallpox virus, which is doubtful, he could not have preserved it all these years. Bush's so-called "crisis" is completely manufactured.

Not since the rise of Hitler have we seen anything quite like this. In the view of many, Bush has turned the U.S. into a full-fledged fascist country. The only hope at this point is that Congress will get up the courage to step in and bring a halt to this unprovoked aggression against a sovereign nation, and in so doing, allow at least a semblance of democracy to be restored, ever there was a time for the will of the people to prevail, this is it.

--Canada

I write from Norway. I agree, it is difficult to be an American abroad. I usually tell people I am a Canadian.

--Norway

I am a white South African--well-off capitalist, three children, good family car, middle class values. Like many of my friends, I'm happy to be living in democratic South Africa with the horrors of our apartheid past behind us. Like many of my friends--both black and white--I abhor the policies of George W. Bush. In this small, globalised world, he puts all of us (yes, even us) at risk of war and endless hatred. We in Africa--who prize our beautiful environment--are put off by his lack of environmental interest. We who are Christians--are put off by his disorted view of Christianity (the Dollar as God and "endless war" as opposed to peace and brotherhood). We who sorted our racist problems out without endangering the whole world abhor Bush's massive financial support of Israel and subtle racism toward "genetically defective" Arabs. (Blacks suffered the same indignity here. What a joy it is now to celebrate our 10th wonderful year of non-racist democracy this year).

Yes, we are hoping that thinking Americans will take back their country from their greedy, corporate leaders. Until then, we will treat anything that comes out of America (sound-bytes, cultural products, and especially corporate opportunism) with suspicion.

--South Africa

Thanks for your great article. It had to be said. It's a shame that courageous people like you have to suffer the same humiliations as the nation as a whole.

We in Europe are progressively scandalized by the fact that even now, after all that happened, a majority of dumb American couchpotatoes are still blind followers of George Dubya and are too profoundly brain amputated to realize how ridiculous they have become in the face of the whole.

In case nobody knows it over there, let me tell you a little secret: many people are joking about the supposed economic boom: G. Dubya is going to achieve it with his new production and bumper export of the starspangled and striped toiletpaper.

--Europe

Having just read your excellent article on the ex-pat view point of the current administration. Your analisys is spot on.

I am an ex-American, I left during the Reagan administration. I did my military service in NATO in the early 70s, fought as a mercenary in Africa in the late 70s and in the 80s spent time in El Salvador and the Middle East. Yes, it was a case of male testosterone driver stupidity. However time and the fact that I'm still alive has forced me to broaden my political horizons. I digress.

So the bottom line is, you are a fine writer and please keep printing the truth.

--England