Bush gets a beating from around the world
Permalink | September 7th, 2005
The Bush administration is continuing to duck questions about accountability, what went wrong, and why it took so long to respond. And in the midst of the chaos, Bush has had to gall to express his confidence in his administration’s ability to deal with another disaster, natural or otherwise. The people want to know, from what does he derive that confidence, based on the response?
The Bush administration’s lack of response in this crisis isn’t going unnoticed. The world has already begun voicing its opinions.
Malaysia’s Berita Harian
When the tsunami hit Asia last December, Bush succeeded in showing off his abilities by offering appropriate and well-organised humanitarian aid, but it seems he has been unresponsive, disorganised and discriminatory in dealing with the Katrina disaster.
Australia’s The Age
President Bush is increasingly seen as out of touch with ordinary people and with reality on the ground - in New Orleans and Iraq - and also on issues such as climate change. The president and, by association, Republicans are highly vulnerable for the first time in years. How the Administration responds has broader implications, too - a deeply unpopular, lame duck president could alter the balance of global leadership.
Nahum Barnea in Israel’s Yediot Aharonot
Just as 11 September 2001 changed the American agenda from internal matters to foreign policy and the war on terror, so Katrina is liable to take America back to its internal agenda: dealing with the environment, society, and the gaps between whites and blacks and between rich and poor.
Nick Reimer in Germany’s die tageszeitung
New Orleans has already become a symbol: never before in human history has a natural disaster been predicted in such exact detail. Despite this, the prediction had no effect. It’s as if mankind has lost the power to correct its own mistakes: In New Orleans, it slid into catastrophe submissively and with eyes wide open. Climate change has already arrived.
Zimbabwe’s Herald
The fact that New Orleans is a southern town predominantly populated by African-Americans explains why President George W. Bush did not see the need to cut short his holiday. All that Bush has done so far is to issue threats against the victims, and deploying trigger-happy American troops - fresh from abusing Iraqi prisoners - to go and “restore order”.
