One of the highlights of the debate was Kerry telling the now-famous story of how France was prepared to take the United States’ word at face value during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“We can remember when President Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with DeGaulle. And in the middle of the discussion, to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, he said, ‘Here, let me show you the photos.’ And DeGaulle waved them off and said, ‘No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me.’
“How many leaders in the world today would respond to us, as a result of what we’ve done, in that way?”
As it turns out, we more or less know the answer to that one. According to polls taken in countries around the world, the international community “no longer look[s] to the U.S. for leadership and sanctuary.” Indeed, people generally feel like Bush is making the world less safe.
The Bush administration’s unilateralist policies in Iraq and its perceived aloofness have left it less trusted at a time of widening global vulnerability, according to polls and interviews in more than 30 countries.
Osama bin Laden remains on the loose. Videos of hostage beheadings in Iraq flicker across the Internet. The nuclear aspirations of North Korea and Iran are troubling. Many countries feel powerless to stop the onslaught and recognize that the U.S. is the only nation militarily strong enough to serve as a bulwark against increasing dangers. But they also feel powerless to persuade Washington to adopt a more nuanced, multilateral strategy.
I know how they feel.
It’s worth emphasizing that the sentiment was not anti-American; it’s anti-Bush.
The citizens of 30 out of 35 countries from different regions, including Germany, Mexico, Italy and Argentina, support Kerry by more than a 2-1 margin over Bush, according to a poll by the Canadian research group GlobeScan and the University of Maryland. The survey also found that on average, 58% of respondents in those countries said the Bush administration made them feel worse about the U.S. versus 19% who said the president’s policies made them feel better.
And it doesn’t appear that we can count on Bush to make direct appeals to the international community to help ameliorate our deteriorating relationships.
Bush’s recent speech at the United Nations, analysts say, reaffirmed that the president was an ideologue with little inclination for building consensus or defusing terrorism by quieter means such as political and economic reforms.
If only the international community had some electoral votes.