Don't let the U.N. approval of the Iraq resolution fool ya. All is not happy in what used to be America's extended family...
Little Love For Bush At U.N.I think Kerry's plan involves the nutty idea of acknowledging the existence of other countries on this planet. It also involves not throwing entire countries into hell (including his own) in order to avenge a devil's work.
...The ardently independent President Bush, possibly the most unilateral of modern presidents, has estranged much of the world. And while polling has shown world opinion of the United States at new lows, it only takes a day at the United Nations to understand why the discontent runs so deep.
Although they will not say it for attribution, those randomly interviewed want Americans to deny Mr. Bush four more years in office. They expect a rekindling of diplomacy, of statesmanship, if Sen. John Kerry becomes president. They have lost all trust in the Bush administration.
"This administration has totally disregarded many longstanding rules and approaches to international affairs and therefore the administration has given its back to its own allies, particularly in Europe," said one senior European U.N. envoy.
"Before 9/11 there was a feeling that this administration wasn't going the way we would like it to lead us. There was Kyoto, the International Criminal Court, the ABM treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban treaty, all before, and then the war in Iraq," the official said.
"A potential Kerry administration I don't think is going to differ in substance that much from the Bush administration," he continued, speaking from the U.N cafeteria overlooking New York's East River. "A Kerry administration is going to differ in the approach."
In a dozen interviews, with diplomatic officials ranging from ambassadors to secretaries, most see Mr. Bush's efforts as too little, too late.
There is less an expectation of a dramatic shift in U.S. policy under a Kerry administration than a belief that there will be a shift in the way the U.S. works with other nations.
