"No light of humanity in the eyes, no gravitas on the face"...

[splat@14]

European editorials "how they see us". Short and worth the read from a perspective unclouded by any US spin.

A world leader who can’t lead
Americans dissatisfied with Bush’s response to Katrina.
9/9/2005

Hurricane Katrina has revealed the true character of the American president, said Philippe Grangereau in Paris’ Libération. George W. Bush, the least hardworking president in history, continued playing at his Texas ranch while his fellow citizens drowned and starved in New Orleans. Most Americans get only two weeks of vacation, if that, but the president had been riding his bike, chopping wood, and fund-raising for five weeks. When he finally, “grudgingly,” cut his revelry short by two days and traveled to the devastated Gulf Coast, it was too late. America, and the world, had already seen that the superpower’s leader “lacks leadership.”

Remember that deer-in-the-headlights look when Bush was informed of the 9/11 attacks? said Stefan Kornelius in Munich’s Suddeütsche Zeitung. Bush seemed similarly helpless in this second national crisis. And he “showed the same political denseness.” Just as he kept reading a story to schoolchildren while thousands of Americans were burning to death in the twin towers, so he kept smiling and joking as floods engulfed whole cities. In that first crisis, though, he was able to recover quickly and portray himself as “strong and decisive.” But this time around, Americans are not so easy to fool. They have watched the death toll in Iraq rise month after month with no end in sight. “It is slowly dawning on them” that tough talk and the profligate use of military power are no substitute for true leadership.

A little compassion would have gone a long way, said Howard Jacobson in the London Independent. But Bush can’t even fake it. “No light of humanity in the eyes. No gravitas on the face.” The only emotion he can muster is defensiveness. “It’s cold comfort, but if you are a Muslim who believes that the West values Western lives above Muslim lives, the American president’s demeanor over the last days points to a more democratic reading: The leader of the Western world lacks a language in which to value any life.”

The president’s indifference was so apparent, and so appalling, said Annette Levy-Willard, also in Libération, that it “roused the American press from its patriotic torpor.” Television news, “normally so conformist and excessively respectful of power,” finally dared to question the administration’s lies. Networks used split screens to reveal the truth: On one side, an administration official saying everything was fine; on the other, images of old people and the poor clinging to rooftops, dying of thirst. Rather than serving corporate goals, “American television performed a public service.” It lived up to the mission of the press to defend the poor and “criticize the political class.” If such zeal lasts after the flood waters ebb, Americans could have a long overdue political awakening.

The rest of the world has already had one, said Madrid’s La Razon in an editorial. We watched the richest country in the world let its poor die like animals. It’s beyond dispute that the U.S. had the means to rescue the hurricane victims. It simply lacked the will. “That the largest and most modern army in the world was so inefficient can only be blamed on leaders of doubtful competence.” America’s image “has been tarnished as never before.”
http://www.theweekmagazine.com/article.asp?id=1108

[babylonsister]

1. Great article-thanks! nt

[donco6]

2. Kick

Good read.

[acmavm]

3. Yes, that's how the rest of the world see 'us'. And that's how a lot of

'us' see this bunch of thugs who have usurped power and control in our country.

u·surp ( P ) Pronunciation Key (y-sûrp, -zûrp)
v. u·surped, u·surp·ing, u·surps
v. tr.
To seize and hold (the power or rights of another, for example) by force and without legal authority. See Synonyms at appropriate.
To take over or occupy without right: usurp a neighbor's land.

v. intr.
To seize another's place, authority, or possession wrongfully

[Infomaniac]

4. Nominated

"...The leader of the Western world lacks a language in which to value any life.”

His actions do speak louder than his hollow words about a "Culture of Life."

[electropop]

10. We need a sign for Sep 24th:

The background is photos of the dead in Baghdad and New Orleans. The foreground reads "Culture of Life."

[Infomaniac]

20. I agree.

Except it should be a question as in: "The Culture of Whose Life?"

[hardrainfallin]

5. "We watched the richest country in the world let its

poor die like animals"

Indeed. And in so doing, without DOING anything about it (like condemning the Sonofabush at the subsequent UN GA), the rest of the world, yet again, made itself complicit in GENOCIDE.

UN must never again be found wanting on Genocide
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/545f929a-2618-11da-a4a7-00000e2511c8.html


Martin Rips UN's 'Empty Rhetoric"
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2005/09/17/1220965-sun.html

[kath]

15. Good point - at its meeting this week , the UN should have condemned

the US for letting its poor die like animals, letting the bodies rot in the streets for more than 2 weeks, etc.

[hardrainfallin]

17. Chavez is the only one with the balls to stand up to **.

how pathetic.

[AirmensMom]

6. Great article. Thanks!

[splat@14]

7. Thanks, & welcome to DU!!

[MrBenchley]

8. Chimpy reminds one of a Faulkner villain

One of the Snopes, perhaps...

Here's a scholar's description of them...and I defy you not to think about the Bu$h crime family while reading this: "As Faulkner describes the Snopeses - allegorically, to be sure - they are degenerate human beings, abstract, devoid of feeling, one-dimensional, like figures stamped out of tin - darkly comic yet sinister, for they mark the end of civilization.... Cold, unfeeling, incompetent, hardly human, they would take over first the villages, then the towns, then the cities; and the entire project of the human race would end in consummate entropy, a winding down into irremediable mediocrity - blacksmiths who can't shoe horses, auto mechanics who are not good with their hands, educators who can't teach, chefs who can't cook, bankers who have no probity. "

http://www.thomasmorecollege.edu/newsletter/newsletter14-3.html

[TallahasseeGrannie]

9. I have never been ashamed to be American

not after Iraq, not after the election. Never.

Until Katrina. Ashamed and embarassed and humiliated. Our country. "let its poor die like animals."

I could have never seen this in my wildest nightmares.

I mean after WTC, we were like freaking army ants! We cleaned it up and took care of business.

I life on the gulf coast and sometimes have to decide when a Cat 3 or higher is out there, whether to leave the house and go to a shelter. No more. I wouldn't trust a shelter any more than a concentration camp. I'll take my chances at home.

I'd rather die in the wind than after four days without water. And isn't that the big outcry with Schiavo? You can't let a human being die of thirst?

It has been two weeks and I'm still not over it. I will NEVER be over it.

[Chalco]

11. You are so right, Grannie.

I was in shock when this man became President. So in shock that I dangerously believed that because he had "won" by a hair he would guide from the middle. That only made sense. It slowly but indelibly reached my subconscious that he was a fabrication, a lie, and that he hood-winked us all. He guided from the far right and intended all along to disrupt and, then, destroy the fabric of our society. His God smiled when Katrina struck. My God did not. I am so ashamed. I am so ashamed.

[TankLV]

19. The problem is that I've been ashamed for a LONG TIME now.

There was a break during 1992-2000 - but since November 2000, I have continually become more and more ashamed of my country.

I used to cringe when people wrote it "amerikkka" - but I have adopted that spelling until such time as my country is restored.

[peacetalksforall]

12. Well, it looks like the rest of the world is not averting their

eyes and attention to 'our problem'. I am thankful to learn that the entire world is not delusional as is nearly 1/2 of this country.

World, we can tell you that you will never believe the callous, cold, and hateful words of contempt that have come out of the mouths of the neighbors of the victims and citizens of this country. These people continue to show their bigotry on radio, tv, and on the internet.

It proves that we are the phoniest country of people on the planet. This co-called Christian nation cannot say that they believe in Chrisian credos - especially Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.

We have also shown that certain supporters of our President love having taxpayer money spent on war and a trial of Saddam Hussein and don't mind the death of innocents, but despise the idea that the poor of New Orleans are helped.

You should also know that some of the very poor of New Orleans are being sent to Christian summer camps which are starting to look like prisons - and the Christian and Corporate friends of the President are getting the contracts for the rehabilitation of everything from ice to construction. In other words, the taxpayer money is being strictly funnelled to friends from all parts of the country, not een from the nearby states who badly need business. If you are from a born again country or a country friendly to Cheney, you too, might get a contract over the heads of LA, MS, AL, FL non-Chrisitan/non-Cheney compnaies.

Watch for news about the prison camps. Dig up the news that will be buried about the effort to not let the poor return to New Orleans.

[Glenda]

13. “roused the American press from its patriotic torpor.”

Really points to the need for a free press

[riverwalker]

14. wow

"The leader of the Western world lacks a language in which to value any life.”

"It’s beyond dispute that the U.S. had the means to rescue the hurricane victims. It simply lacked the will."

[Lisa]

16. when Bush took office, I was scared for Americans

I'm Canadian, but even though I knew that he would probably not have as direct an impact on me personally, something told me that his administration would be very bad for the US. I have NEVER felt this way about any other American president.

[Nothing Without Hope]

18. Yes, I KNEW it would be a disaster and a horror, but even I didn't

dream they would go this far. They are truly, monstrously, murderously insane, and Bush is their vicious, pathetic puppet.

It's one of the reasons why having BOTH the last elections stolen was such a terrible blow. Not just that democracy was gone, but that monsters had seized power in coups and only we progressives seemed to give a damn about it. It was Orwell's worst nightmares come to life.