Nicholas D. Kristof: A Spanish lesson for Bush
Nicholas D. Kristof NYT Monday, April 12, 2004
MADRID A crowd is gathered under a drizzle outside the U.S. Embassy here in the capital of a country that has been one of America's closest allies. Perhaps the crowd has come to express solidarity with the American troops being shot at (along with Spanish troops) in the alleys of cities like Falluja?
.
Try again.
.
"Murderers," the crowd shouts at the embassy. "Murderers! Murderers!" That kind of anti-Americanism is now widespread around the globe, and it will be one of President George W. Bush's most important legacies.
.
It's not just that the Bush administration's arrogance and unilateralism have led Pakistanis to give Osama bin Laden a 65 percent favorable rating, compared with 7 percent for President Bush (the latest international polls from the Pew Research Center make you want to cry). Even in traditional allies like Spain, which the United States now needs to fix the mess in Iraq, the good will after 9/11 has dissolved into suspicion and hostility.
.
Bush is now recognizing what critics of the Iraq war pointed out from the beginning: We Americans could win the initial invasion on our own, but to win the peace we need allies. The administration's ham-handed diplomacy has left the American troops in Falluja dangerously alone and exposed.
.
Spain's incoming prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, will almost certainly be pulling the 1,300 Spanish troops out of Iraq over the next few months. Ninety percent of Spaniards are against the Iraq war, and U.S. pronouncements about progress in Iraq have the same credibility as the cheery bombast of Saddam's last information minister.
.
"Iraq has become, thanks to the rashness of Bush, a monstrosity," warned El País, Spain's leading daily, in an editorial this week.
.
American conservatives had a field day after Zapatero's election, calling Spaniards wimps for reacting to the 3/11 train bombings by electing an antiwar candidate. But on the ground here, it's clear that accusation was deeply unfair.
.
Zapatero's last-minute surge of support had nothing to do with Spaniards knuckling under to Al Qaeda. Rather, Spaniards reacted to Prime Minister José María Aznar's dishonesty in blaming Basque terrorists for the bombing.
.
Take my Spanish family (my aunt married a Spaniard, and my five cousins were born and raised in Madrid). My aunt and uncle are conservatives who still voted for the governing party, but with disgust. As for my cousins, all swing voters, they ended up supporting Zapatero. Cousin Anna had initially decided not to vote, because she didn't like either candidate, but after the bombing she felt duty-bound to go out and participate in the democratic process and help elect Zapatero.
.
"I wanted to show that we would not be intimidated," she said, and that mechanism - an extraordinarily high voter turnout - was the primary one that resulted in Zapatero's election. Do Americans really think that Spaniards should have responded to the bombings by staying home apathetically on Election Day?
.
Accusing Spain of bowing to terrorism has exacerbated the Spanish alienation from the United States, for this is a country that has lost 900 people to Basque terrorism over the years - and that Al Qaeda recently pledged to turn into "an inferno."
.
"You never get used to going to cemeteries; you never get used to embracing a widow," says one senior government official. "No one can accuse us of trying to find a way out. It's not only unjust, it's irritating and infuriating."
.
Still, Zapatero should announce that all 1,300 troops pulled out of Iraq will be immediately placed in Afghanistan.
.
A major Spanish deployment there would make a huge difference in stabilizing that country, and it would underscore that Spaniards are willing to shed their blood to fight Islamic militants, so long as there is a UN mandate and a clear plan. It wouldn't have taken much to maintain our friendship with our allies.
.
Sure, there are cultural gaps: Europeans are bewildered that Americans can feel more threatened by Janet Jackson's breast than by unregulated handguns. But the Bush administration had to work hard to take all the good will accumulated over the decades since World War II and the Marshall Plan, and replace it with distrust and hostility. As my Uncle José, who is profoundly pro-American, puts it sadly: "There's so much anti-Americanism now. That is Bush's achievement."
.
E-mail: nicholas ARROBA nytimes.com
< < Back to Start of Article MADRID A crowd is gathered under a drizzle outside the U.S. Embassy here in the capital of a country that has been one of America's closest allies. Perhaps the crowd has come to express solidarity with the American troops being shot at (along with Spanish troops) in the alleys of cities like Falluja?
.
Try again.
.
"Murderers," the crowd shouts at the embassy. "Murderers! Murderers!" That kind of anti-Americanism is now widespread around the globe, and it will be one of President George W. Bush's most important legacies.
.
It's not just that the Bush administration's arrogance and unilateralism have led Pakistanis to give Osama bin Laden a 65 percent favorable rating, compared with 7 percent for President Bush (the latest international polls from the Pew Research Center make you want to cry). Even in traditional allies like Spain, which the United States now needs to fix the mess in Iraq, the good will after 9/11 has dissolved into suspicion and hostility.
.
Bush is now recognizing what critics of the Iraq war pointed out from the beginning: We Americans could win the initial invasion on our own, but to win the peace we need allies. The administration's ham-handed diplomacy has left the American troops in Falluja dangerously alone and exposed.
.
Spain's incoming prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, will almost certainly be pulling the 1,300 Spanish troops out of Iraq over the next few months. Ninety percent of Spaniards are against the Iraq war, and U.S. pronouncements about progress in Iraq have the same credibility as the cheery bombast of Saddam's last information minister.
.
"Iraq has become, thanks to the rashness of Bush, a monstrosity," warned El País, Spain's leading daily, in an editorial this week.
.
American conservatives had a field day after Zapatero's election, calling Spaniards wimps for reacting to the 3/11 train bombings by electing an antiwar candidate. But on the ground here, it's clear that accusation was deeply unfair.
.
Zapatero's last-minute surge of support had nothing to do with Spaniards knuckling under to Al Qaeda. Rather, Spaniards reacted to Prime Minister José María Aznar's dishonesty in blaming Basque terrorists for the bombing.
.
Take my Spanish family (my aunt married a Spaniard, and my five cousins were born and raised in Madrid). My aunt and uncle are conservatives who still voted for the governing party, but with disgust. As for my cousins, all swing voters, they ended up supporting Zapatero. Cousin Anna had initially decided not to vote, because she didn't like either candidate, but after the bombing she felt duty-bound to go out and participate in the democratic process and help elect Zapatero.
.
"I wanted to show that we would not be intimidated," she said, and that mechanism - an extraordinarily high voter turnout - was the primary one that resulted in Zapatero's election. Do Americans really think that Spaniards should have responded to the bombings by staying home apathetically on Election Day?
.
Accusing Spain of bowing to terrorism has exacerbated the Spanish alienation from the United States, for this is a country that has lost 900 people to Basque terrorism over the years - and that Al Qaeda recently pledged to turn into "an inferno."
.
"You never get used to going to cemeteries; you never get used to embracing a widow," says one senior government official. "No one can accuse us of trying to find a way out. It's not only unjust, it's irritating and infuriating."
.
Still, Zapatero should announce that all 1,300 troops pulled out of Iraq will be immediately placed in Afghanistan.
.
A major Spanish deployment there would make a huge difference in stabilizing that country, and it would underscore that Spaniards are willing to shed their blood to fight Islamic militants, so long as there is a UN mandate and a clear plan. It wouldn't have taken much to maintain our friendship with our allies.
.
Sure, there are cultural gaps: Europeans are bewildered that Americans can feel more threatened by Janet Jackson's breast than by unregulated handguns. But the Bush administration had to work hard to take all the good will accumulated over the decades since World War II and the Marshall Plan, and replace it with distrust and hostility. As my Uncle José, who is profoundly pro-American, puts it sadly: "There's so much anti-Americanism now. That is Bush's achievement."
.
E-mail: nicholas ARROBA nytimes.com MADRID A crowd is gathered under a drizzle outside the U.S. Embassy here in the capital of a country that has been one of America's closest allies. Perhaps the crowd has come to express solidarity with the American troops being shot at (along with Spanish troops) in the alleys of cities like Falluja?
.
Try again.
.
"Murderers," the crowd shouts at the embassy. "Murderers! Murderers!" That kind of anti-Americanism is now widespread around the globe, and it will be one of President George W. Bush's most important legacies.
.
It's not just that the Bush administration's arrogance and unilateralism have led Pakistanis to give Osama bin Laden a 65 percent favorable rating, compared with 7 percent for President Bush (the latest international polls from the Pew Research Center make you want to cry). Even in traditional allies like Spain, which the United States now needs to fix the mess in Iraq, the good will after 9/11 has dissolved into suspicion and hostility.
.
Bush is now recognizing what critics of the Iraq war pointed out from the beginning: We Americans could win the initial invasion on our own, but to win the peace we need allies. The administration's ham-handed diplomacy has left the American troops in Falluja dangerously alone and exposed.
.
Spain's incoming prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, will almost certainly be pulling the 1,300 Spanish troops out of Iraq over the next few months. Ninety percent of Spaniards are against the Iraq war, and U.S. pronouncements about progress in Iraq have the same credibility as the cheery bombast of Saddam's last information minister.
.
"Iraq has become, thanks to the rashness of Bush, a monstrosity," warned El País, Spain's leading daily, in an editorial this week.
.
American conservatives had a field day after Zapatero's election, calling Spaniards wimps for reacting to the 3/11 train bombings by electing an antiwar candidate. But on the ground here, it's clear that accusation was deeply unfair.
.
Zapatero's last-minute surge of support had nothing to do with Spaniards knuckling under to Al Qaeda. Rather, Spaniards reacted to Prime Minister José María Aznar's dishonesty in blaming Basque terrorists for the bombing.
.
Take my Spanish family (my aunt married a Spaniard, and my five cousins were born and raised in Madrid). My aunt and uncle are conservatives who still voted for the governing party, but with disgust. As for my cousins, all swing voters, they ended up supporting Zapatero. Cousin Anna had initially decided not to vote, because she didn't like either candidate, but after the bombing she felt duty-bound to go out and participate in the democratic process and help elect Zapatero.
.
"I wanted to show that we would not be intimidated," she said, and that mechanism - an extraordinarily high voter turnout - was the primary one that resulted in Zapatero's election. Do Americans really think that Spaniards should have responded to the bombings by staying home apathetically on Election Day?
.
Accusing Spain of bowing to terrorism has exacerbated the Spanish alienation from the United States, for this is a country that has lost 900 people to Basque terrorism over the years - and that Al Qaeda recently pledged to turn into "an inferno."
.
"You never get used to going to cemeteries; you never get used to embracing a widow," says one senior government official. "No one can accuse us of trying to find a way out. It's not only unjust, it's irritating and infuriating."
.
Still, Zapatero should announce that all 1,300 troops pulled out of Iraq will be immediately placed in Afghanistan.
.
A major Spanish deployment there would make a huge difference in stabilizing that country, and it would underscore that Spaniards are willing to shed their blood to fight Islamic militants, so long as there is a UN mandate and a clear plan. It wouldn't have taken much to maintain our friendship with our allies.
.
Sure, there are cultural gaps: Europeans are bewildered that Americans can feel more threatened by Janet Jackson's breast than by unregulated handguns. But the Bush administration had to work hard to take all the good will accumulated over the decades since World War II and the Marshall Plan, and replace it with distrust and hostility. As my Uncle José, who is profoundly pro-American, puts it sadly: "There's so much anti-Americanism now. That is Bush's achievement."
.
E-mail: nicholas ARROBA nytimes.com MADRID A crowd is gathered under a drizzle outside the U.S. Embassy here in the capital of a country that has been one of America's closest allies. Perhaps the crowd has come to express solidarity with the American troops being shot at (along with Spanish troops) in the alleys of cities like Falluja?
.
Try again.
.
"Murderers," the crowd shouts at the embassy. "Murderers! Murderers!" That kind of anti-Americanism is now widespread around the globe, and it will be one of President George W. Bush's most important legacies.
.
It's not just that the Bush administration's arrogance and unilateralism have led Pakistanis to give Osama bin Laden a 65 percent favorable rating, compared with 7 percent for President Bush (the latest international polls from the Pew Research Center make you want to cry). Even in traditional allies like Spain, which the United States now needs to fix the mess in Iraq, the good will after 9/11 has dissolved into suspicion and hostility.
.
Bush is now recognizing what critics of the Iraq war pointed out from the beginning: We Americans could win the initial invasion on our own, but to win the peace we need allies. The administration's ham-handed diplomacy has left the American troops in Falluja dangerously alone and exposed.
.
Spain's incoming prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, will almost certainly be pulling the 1,300 Spanish troops out of Iraq over the next few months. Ninety percent of Spaniards are against the Iraq war, and U.S. pronouncements about progress in Iraq have the same credibility as the cheery bombast of Saddam's last information minister.
.
"Iraq has become, thanks to the rashness of Bush, a monstrosity," warned El País, Spain's leading daily, in an editorial this week. |
