World>Terrorism & Security
posted November 4, 2004, updated 1:00 p.m.
How the world sees Bush's victory
International media weigh in, as the US election result dominates editorial pages.
Editorialists and pundits the world over have had more than 24 hours to digest results from the US presidential election. Their views ranged from
unabashed support to outright
indignation.A
London Times editorial suggests Bush should take advantage of his clear mandate.
The President should not waste time trying to appease or win over those who have no time for him. There is the chance, perhaps, that with the passage of time the qualities which Americans see in this politician will become more obvious to others. Mr Bush must exploit the prominence that he has been given for four more years. The London-based
al-Quds al-Arabi raised alarm that Mr. Bush won a second term.
The security, stability and peace of the entire world is threatened by Bush's second term win. Therefore, wise leaders should not stand by and watch in the face of this present danger which threatens to destroy everything... There is an urgent need for prominent world leaders to hold a summit, to express their concern over the seriousness of the bloody and reckless American policies.
France's
Le Monde comes closest to articulating the view expressed where policy differences with the US over Iraq exist. Diplomatic and urbane, it offers a secularist take on the biblical expression "suffer it to be so now." Matters one cannot control, must be endured.
Whether we like or not, America has become more conservative, more religious and more unilateralist, and the Republicans rallied on polling day just as strongly as the Democrats... And not even the economic figures in the red managed to convince the country to vote massively for Kerry. America remains split in two.
Commentary in Hungary's
Nepszabadsag has a decidedly EU-nationalist bent on military implications:
The world must draw conclusions from this result. With or without us America will continue its foreign policy of the past four years. Europe must close ranks, and build a military force in keeping with its economic weight. But any vision of non-NATO troops marching through the streets of Europe meets a reality check in Germany's
Der Tagesspiegel with the perspective of a country with no little experience mustering military might.
Bush will have to do a lot to make sure that at least Europe's leading politicians regain trust in the only superpower... But Europe should also reconsider its ambitions, which seem naive, to act as a political counterweight to the USA. Turkey's
Hurriyet approaches stoicism in its reaction.
John Kerry was not good for Turkey and George Bush is not good for world peace... the American voters have once more brought someone they deserved to the presidency. In this case, what is left for us is to bear it and to protect our own interests with maximum sensitivity. While most of the world saw the record turnout of voters in the US as a hallmark of its vibrant, albeit divided, democracy, the religious oligarchy ruling Iran zeroed in on the "great Satan's" shortcomings in
Jomhuri-ye Eslami.
The US presidential election was not free of election fraud. The Democrats objected to vote-counting in certain areas like Ohio. This proves that American democracy is not free of cheating, fraud, and hypocrisy. Speaking to the Muslim world, the Iranian paper,
Kayhan International's take was to reflect deeply on the absence of any prospect of reconciliation with the US and Europe.
The Palestinians, Arabs and all Muslims need to do some real soul-searching instead of feeling disappointed over George Bush's victory. No-one in the White House or Europe will provide a solution to their problems. Expecting the wolf to safeguard the sheep is the height of stupidity - a syndrome from which the Arab world is suffering. Commentary in Russia's
Izvestiya anticipated more difficult relations with the US regardless of the presidential outcome. It does see a silver lining in that the historically more understated approach of Republicans triumphed over the Democrats with their propensity to criticize more publicly those countries where human rights violations are blatant.
Despite all the efforts of the Russian authorities, the US approach towards Russia will inevitably get harsher. This would have happened irrespective of whether Bush or Kerry had taken up residence in the White House. Nevertheless, the Republicans are preferable for the Kremlin. Under them the harsher approach will be less noticeable. However, the paper
Moskovskiy Komsomolets was decidedly more pragmatic in its take on proclaiming that,
Bush's victory is beneficial to Russia. We know him, we know the members of his team. We have got used to them and they have got used to us. In addition to this, the Bush administration does not tell us how we should run our business. It does not interfere much in the internal matters of our country. It is also important that personal relations have developed between our presidents. Contrasts between Israeli and Arab papers is predictable. The
Jerusalem Post writes,
Notwithstanding the poker-faced professions of neutrality in the last few days, [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon and his colleagues will have been dancing - albeit probably only figuratively in the prime minister's case - as first Florida and later Ohio edged inexorably Bushwards. For the president's victory is emphatically the prime minister's victory too. The mutual-admiration society now has a new lease on life. Another Israeli
Haaretz, remarks on the defeat Bush dealt to his opponents.
Bush's victory is a dramatic one. He beat down the East Coast elites and the West Coast elites. He brought about a stunning defeat of the enlightened American public. He has a nation that split in two this week... Bush must cease to conduct fanatical crusades against his opponents. He must be tough, but he must listen. In the United Arab Emirates,
al-Bayan comments that,
Just like the Zionists, we should not concern ourselves with who wins the American presidential elections, since anyone who takes the seat of power in the White House is only keen to protect Israel, even if it is in the wrong. It is only us who always suffer. For Oman's
al-Watan, there is but a glimmer of hope for a change in American policy:
We hope that those who have suffered most in Bush's first term will benefit most in his second term. The Palestinian arena is the best test to see whether Bush wants really to clean up his record as he knows better than anyone else that he has supported Israel's state-sponsored terrorism against the Palestinian people more than anyone else. In Australia, where support for the US-led war in Iraq remains strong,
The Australian holds high expectations that Bush's victory would translate into greater support for his positions worldwide.
The Bush victory is a stunning vindication by the American people of their government and its conduct of the war on terror... Bush's big win in the popular vote - an absolute majority of votes cast and a lead on John Kerry of nearly four million votes - will change international attitudes to his administration.
The Sydney Morning Herald expects a tempering of US foreign policy, even a possible reflection that that policy verges on recklessness:
Mr. Bush appears to have won an authoritative victory. Democracy - that worst of all political systems apart from all the others - has spoken in the most powerful nation. But power is not a licence to recklessness or bravado... a second term can temper exuberance and bellicosity, just as it did for Ronald Reagan. And what is surely a study in contrasts, one verbose, one succinct, the British
Guardian
and the Chinese
Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) draw the same sober-eyed conclusion: Bush won, now let's see what he does. The
Guardian wrote:
Mr Bush, in other words, has a mandate of the kind he did not have before. Yes, it was a narrow win (unusual for presidents seeking re-election), but it was a considerably larger one, in popular vote terms, than Kennedy in 1960, Nixon in 1968 and Carter in 1976. It was also a decisive one, made sweeter for the Republicans by their strengthened control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. We may not like it. In fact, to tell the truth, we don't like it one bit. But if it isn't a mandate, then the word has no meaning. Mr Bush has won fair (so far as we can see) and square. He and his country - and the rest of the world - now have to deal with it. And in the
People's Daily
:
Although Bush has won re-election, he now faces the painful task and an uncertain future of uniting the Americans and winning the war on terrorism that he has promised to win.
Also...
•
Experts say Europe is hoping for a new start. (
Deutsche Welle)
•
Put your faith in the Faith (
Times of London)
•
White House Limbo - UN General Assembly should resolve US deadlocks (
The Times of India)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Jim Bencivenga
.
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