CS Monitor - World media: Bush inaugural a jolt

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0121/dailyUpdate.html

World > Terrorism & Security
posted January 21, 2005, updated 1:00 p.m.

World media: Bush inaugural a jolt

Emphasis on freedom still takes unilateral road alienating foreign press.

By Jim Bencivenga | csmonitor.com

Presidential inauguration speeches, especially in time of war, spark intense personal and political passions. The press is not immune to this tendency. But the press has an outlet in editorials, commentaries, and individual columns. Prior to Pres. George Bush's speech, the world was keen to see whether the American president intended to go ahead with a unilateral or multilateral road in foreign policy. So when Mr. Bush made it clear on Thursday that he was not about to "turn back from his doctrine of taking pre-emptive action, in the interests of American security (or, as he would put it, American freedom)" as the BBC characterized his speech, there was little room for noted British understatement in the headline of the Beeb's stellar roundup – "World press electrified by Bush vision."

'Hold on to your hats, this may be the most ambitious presidency ever.' That's the message from one Israeli paper after President George W. Bush's inauguration – a message echoed across the world's press.

For China's press his speech raises the question whether Washington will head further down a 'unilateral' path in foreign relations.

One Polish paper heralds the speech as the dawn of a conservative revolution, while in Germany and Turkey there's a bleak forecast for the new Bush era.


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1. kick, kick

[imenja]

2. Bush's crusade: NewsHour on PBS

The NewsHour had a very interesting discussion on the inaugural speech last night. Zbigniew Brzezinski and Walter Russel Mead debated the point of the speech. Brzezinski referred to it as empty rhetoric that sounded lovely but in practice as impossible. If it were a real articulating of Bush's policies, he noted, this administration was embarking on a dangerous crusade. Mead noted that the White House does not see Iraq as a failure, and that the prospects of invading Iran are not frightening to them as it would be to the rest of us. It was pretty scary stuff actually. Meade represented the pro-administration position, and he was essentially verifying Hersh's reporting (without saying as much).

There was a funny moment when Brzezinski asked Meade what this proclamation of support for "freedom" would mean in China. Mead said we would be "nicer" to dissidents. Brzezinski didn't saying anything, but you could read his facial expressions: " Since when does being "nicer" constitute strategic foreign policy? Can you possibly be serious?!" It's worth watching or listening to the discussion.

Find audio and video files here, under inaugural address: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html