From everything we can gather so far, there are few fans of a John McCain presidency in the Russian press – and the same can be said of President Bush. Asking what’s wrong with Bush’s Iraq strategy is the same as asking what the danger of a John McCain Administration would be. Galina Zeveleva of Russia’s Novosti News Service writes, “Bush continues to rely on force, thereby multiplying the army of terrorists more quickly than he can suppress them, while strengthening the conviction in Iran that possession of nuclear weapons is the only guarantee of its security.”
Zeveleva concludes, “If John McCain becomes the next president, the United States and the situation in the Near and Middle East may never escape this vicious circle.”
By Galina Zeveleva
Translated By Igor Medvedev
April 15, 2008
Novosti – Russia – Original Article (Russian)
WASHINGTON: The latest major speeches to be given by U.S. President George W. Bush (April 10) seems to have escaped the attention of commentators. In vain – he identified two enemies which are impeding a U.S. victory in Iraq: “Al-Qaeda” with its “ideology of terror,” and Iran, a stronghold of Islamic fundamentalism.
Note, both of these enemies – are ideological. For the American president, the Iraq War is the most important new front in the battle between the forces of good and evil since America’s victory in the “Cold War.” Bush believes that in the 21st century, America must once again “defend the values of freedom” and lead the fight against a hostile and dangerous ideology.
Before the beginning of the war in the spring of 2003, Bush declared that the main threat America faced emanated from Saddam Hussein, and as it turned out later, his non-existent weapons of mass destruction. However, U.S. plans went much further than the overthrow of the dictator. Bush announced that his aim was nothing less than building a “democratic” Iraq which would serve as a model for other countries in the Middle East and be an ally of the United States in the war on terrorism. Five years later, the United States doesn’t intend to continue the war, and Iraq is far from being a functioning democracy. It’s not quite clear who controls that country, if anyone does, and more importantly, what will happen to it.
Now Bush sees a new threat: He’s afraid that some of Iraq’s Shiite population and eventually the entire country may be under Iran’s control. In his speech, the president warned that U.S. and Iraqi relations with Iran depend on the choices made by the Islamic Republic’s leadership. He has essentially offered the Iranian leadership an ultimatum: “The regime in Tehran also has a choice to make. It can live in peace with its neighbor, enjoy strong economic and cultural and religious ties. Or it can continue to arm and train and fund illegal militant groups, which are terrorizing the Iraqi people and turning them against Iran.” The White House chief added, “America will act to protect our interests, and our troops, and our Iraqi partners.” This is purely military language.
But to the American President, there is no less important front in the Iraq War than the ideological struggle between “freedom” and the “ideology of terror.” Bush again resorted to his favorite parallel: that between the War on Terror and the “Cold War,” and he sought to prove that the money that the U.S. spends on the Iraq War is just as important as the military spending during the era of ideological and military confrontation between the United States and the U.S.S.R.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of America’s involvement in Iraq,
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