Brushed Off by the World

I guess insulting much of the world and then asking for help wasn’t such a great idea. Here are some salient excerpts from a story, Brushed Off by the World, Bush Calls India for Help, in today’s Washington Post:

From Asia to Europe to Africa, President Bush’s televised appeal Sunday night for international help in rebuilding Iraq drew as much scorn as sympathy in the online media.

…In Brunei, the oil-rich enclave in southeast Asia, the headline in the Borneo Bulletin minced no words: “U.S. Admits Failure in Iraq.”

…reported Michael Settle in the Glasgow Herald, “drew an embarrassingly muted response across the globe.”

…Even Norway, which has already sent 150 soldiers to Iraq, was critical. Foreign minister Jan Petersen was quoted in the English-language Norway Post as saying that he regretted that Bush didn’t offer “a greater political role for the U.N. in Iraq. This he could have done and should have done.”

…The real acid test for Bush’s appeal is India, where recent developments give the Bush administration at least some hope of a positive response…By itself, India nearly could satisfy the Bush administration’s immediate desire for 20,000 fresh troops in Iraq.

AB