Java Buzz Forum - Begging Foreigners

I subscribe to the notion that the majority is not always right, but it usually is right. This is probably why democracies work better than political systems that depend too much on the decisions of too few people. So when Bush embarked on his ill-conceived plan to forget about Osama Bin Laden (hey, he may have been responsible for the September 11 attack, but the guy's too hard to catch) and focus instead on Iraq (which had NOTHING to do with the attack), the fact that the majority of the world's nations argued against the invasion should have struck a chord. Instead, Bush deceived and manipulated the American public for his own ends and got the illegal war he wanted.

Several months after the declared end of the war, the guerilla attacks against American soldiers and others have intensified. There are now more soldiers killed since Bush's declaration of victory than were killed during the war, and there are now twice as many wounded and maimed soldiers than in the 1991 Persian Gulf War (which, unlike this one, was a justified and UN-sanctioned invasion), with an average of 10 soldiers being wounded every day.

In this brilliant piece in the New York Times, Paul Krugman paints an ironic picture of the self-appointed policeman of the world suddenly begging European countries that it had insulted prior to the war for help. In addition, he points out that this scenario is repeated in the economic front, where Bush is trying to get China's help in devaluing its currency in order to help the US economy. He notes down all the reasons why China holds the advantage in this encounter, and reminds us that it was Bush who earlier painted a picture of China as a "strategic competitor".

All the world knows about the Iraq about-face: having squandered our military strength in a war he felt like fighting even though it had nothing to do with terrorism, President Bush is now begging the cheese-eaters and chocolate-makers to rescue him. What may not be equally obvious is that he's doing the same thing on the economic front. Having squandered his room for economic maneuver on tax cuts that pleased his party base but had nothing to do with job creation, Mr. Bush is now asking China to help him out.

Not, of course, that Mr. Bush admits to having made any mistakes. Indeed, Mr. Bush seems to have a serious case of "l'état, c'est moi": he impugns the patriotism of anyone who questions his decisions.

If you ask why he diverted resources away from hunting Al Qaeda, which attacked us, to invading Iraq, which didn't, he suggests that you're weak on national security. And it's the same for anyone who questions his economic record.

However, he's decided to plead with the Chinese for help.

But he got no satisfaction. A quick look at the situation reveals one reason why: the U.S. currently has very little leverage over China. Mr. Bush needs China's help to deal with North Korea — another crisis that was allowed to fester while the administration focused on Iraq. Furthermore, purchases of Treasury bills by China's central bank are one of the main ways the U.S. finances its trade deficit.

Nobody is quite sure what would happen if the Chinese suddenly switched to, say, euros — a two-point jump in mortgage rates? — but it's not an experiment anyone wants to try.


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