Global Paradigms

Business Times - 22 Nov 2005 Bush: the Lord North of today By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT SINCE I've been spending so much time in recent months reading and writing about US President George W Bush, his neoconservative advisers and the mess in Iraq, I decided to take some time off these current topics and read a very well-written and very well-researched life history of one of America's Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton. But I had to read only a few pages of the massive biography by Ron Chernow (Alexander Hamilton, Penguin Books, 2004) before I was transported from the late 18th century to the start of the 21st century, to Bush, the neocons and Iraq. Here is how Hamilton, in an impressive and shrewd insight into the psychology of power, described the futile efforts by the then British prime minister, Lord North, to suppress the insurgency by the American colonists against the occupying imperial power: 'The premier has advanced too far to recede with safety; he is...

Before President George W. Bush had left Washington to attend the leaders summit of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea and to visit Japan, China and Mongolia, a top U.S. official had warned American reporters that they shouldn’t expect the trip to lead to major diplomatic breakthroughs. Now that President Bush has returned back from Asia it’s be safe to conclude that as a headline in the Washington Post put it, "Bush’s Asia Trip Meets Low Expectations." Not only did the U.S. President fail to get a respite from domestic problems during his eight-day Asia tour. He also didn’t have a lot opportunities to demonstrate the energetic leadership upon which he prides himself. President Bush did have many photo opportunities during the trip and he delivered a few inspiring speeches -- saluting freedom in Kyoto, joining the other APEC leaders in a group photo, attending church services in Beijing, taking part in official festivities in Ulan Bator. But the col...