"Bush has destroyed half a century of good will among NATO allies"

juan cole reflects on not counting 20,000 brain-injured iraq troops as casualties and the destruction of u.s. credibility in the foreign policy arena...

Whoever is responsible for this disgusting travesty is an automatic candidate for Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World." My guess is that the trail will lead back to Donald "its not a guerrilla war" Rumsfeld and Richard Bruce "most prominent traitor in American history" Cheney. Gregg Zoroya of USA Today reports that 20,000 US troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffered brain injuries were never classified as wounded by the Pentagon and are not included in the official statistics for the wounded issued by the Department of Defense. Although some of the under-reporting of this condition could be inadvertent, the scale of it strongly suggests an underlying policy.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien says that it was among the great victories in his life that he stood against US pressure to join in the Iraq War.

Uh, the purpose of a wise and mature US foreign policy is to avoid close allies ending up speaking like that. Bush has destroyed half a century of good will among NATO allies, most of whom now think they are better off not following Washington's lead. Leaders who threw in with Bush, like Aznar of Spain and Berlusconi of Italy, have been ushered off the political stage by enraged publics. As someone who grew up when the US (and its currency) was respected by most Europeans and other North Americans, I am sad to see the way W. has debased our position and humiliated our country.

the full quote from professor cole that headlines this post is, "Bush has destroyed half a century of good will among NATO allies, most of whom now think they are better off not following Washington's lead..." i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing... the u.s. sorely needs more countries who are willing to chart their own course and exert their influence on US for a change... our massive arrogance balloon is way overdue for a pricking...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet