Katrina Exposes Superpower in Disarray

[buzzsaw_23]

Katrina Exposes Superpower in Disarray


Sunday September 11, 2005 6:16 PM

By ANNE GEARAN

AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rarely in U.N. history has the United States, the organization's chief sponsor and host, looked as awkward or vulnerable to foreign eyes as it does now.

With 170 world leaders meeting in New York this week, the Bush administration is scrambling to save lives and restore its can-do image. Hurricane Katrina has produced scenes of devastation and deprivation shocking to the rich and powerful U.S. but all too familiar elsewhere.

Televised images of fetid floodwaters in New Orleans and grim-faced U.S. officials, from President Bush on down, are greeting heads of states arriving for the U.N. General Assembly.

<snip>

Staggered by Katrina, the U.S. also faces international opposition to the war it is leading in Iraq. There is resentment, too, that Bush has refused to sign the Kyoto treaty on global warming or embrace British Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposal that rich nations donate foreign aid equal to 0.7 percent of their national income. The U.S. percentage is 0.16 percent, the lowest of leading industrialized nations.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5270729,00.html

[Coventina]

1. To rephrase Reagan: "Do you feel safer than you did four years ago?"

I sure don't.

[buzzsaw_23]

3. Talked to my brother in Arkansas

this AM and he was saying how numerous of the Bush supporters are done with that clan and fearful for their security as they are poor and are being hit in all directions by this gov't.

[Field Of Dreams]

2. I'm so glad...

thank god we have John Bolton to smooth the way. :eyes:

[sarcasmo]

4. IMHO, it's prime time for China to invade. Oops I mean liberate.

Under these knuckleheads we have in power, China could invade our country and take over with ease. Think about it, all over our Guard is in Iraq, look how long it took them to get to New Orleans. We have no Helicopters and most of our Navy Ships are over in the far Atlantic, Caspian and the Middle East Theater.
China and Russian joint maneuvers should scare the hell out of the boy King. The Untied States has crumbled to a shell of it's former self since this ASSHAT have taken over. This weakness we have shown must be making them salivate.

[mwwittin]

7. OK, scary

When did the USA get Navy in the Caspian Sea? It has much oil but is not close to USA bases anywhere. Now you scare me. Why does Russia let this happen?

[Zensea]

5. Perception?

I love the hidden editorializing.
"Yet Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are coming to New York dogged by the perception of disarray and government bumbling that gives other nations a rare glimpse of a superpower on its heels."

Perception of disarray?
Excuse me, it's not a perception, it's a fact.

[susu369]

6. Where are those "grim-faced" pics of bu$h*, 'cause I missed them

This is interesting:

"While grateful, the administration knows that accepting the help can feed the perception of weakness.

``Because of our power, they like to test the limits of that power,'' said conservative foreign policy scholar Gary Schmitt. His Project for the New American Century is a regular font of ideas adopted by the White House and State Department.

``I understand that, but I think there will be a surprise, frankly, at how quickly we are able to recover. They will quickly discover that we can walk and chew gum at the same time,'' he said.

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Um-m-m-m