Mr. Bush's "disengagement from the reality of a sinking Iraq is alarming."

[rndmprsn]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/22/international/europe/22CND-EURO.html

Bush's Speech to U.N. Wins Few Plaudits in Europe

LONDON, Sept. 22 — The editorial cartoon in the Times of London newspaper today was derisive: the first panel has President Bush telling the United Nations General Assembly, "Friends, our policy in Iraq is directed solely towards a successful election."

The second panel has him saying which election: "Mine."

...The paper said that Mr. Bush's Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, "after being evasive, long-winded and sometimes contradictory," was beginning to speak more realistically than Mr. Bush about deterioration in Iraq. And, the newspaper asserted, that Mr. Bush's "disengagement from the reality of a sinking Iraq is alarming."

President Bush, the paper said, is "part of the problem rather than the solution" when it comes to working with allies. In his speech to the United Nations, the paper said, Mr. Bush "showed that slightly autistic self-satisfaction remains the dominant tendency of American power."

In Le Figaro, which reflects the thinking of France's conservative establishment, the correspondent Philippe Gelie observed that Mr. Bush was "impervious to criticism" in the conduct of American foreign policy. His speech in New York was that of a "campaigning American president" who "lectured the rest of the world."

"In his vision of a global war between good and evil, each new crime strengthens his conviction of having been right against those who accuse him of having invaded Iraq under false pretenses," Mr. Gelie wrote.

The German daily Tagesspiegel's editorial was blunt in its review of the speech. Its headline said, "US, UN, Iraq: the truth counts for nothing."

[BootinUp]

1. Can it be stated any clearer?

This is what the damn talking heads should be repeating. Its disgusting, we don't even have England behind us.

[blue neen]

2. Bush is not just part of the problem,

he IS the problem.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. Add the reality of a sinking American economy. eom

[bigtree]

4. I beleive that Bush's arrogant speech has further galvanized the world

against us, possibly as far as he could push them without having them totally shut us off. I'm not so sure that that won't still happen. France and Germany have already learned to live without our favor. Spain and others as well. I fear that every one of us, along with Bush, will rightly be held to account by the world and God if we fail to eject this dangerous duo this November.