Fear helped Bush win - experts

2004-11-05 09:30

Madrid - The United States of America is a country more divided today than at the height of the Vietnam conflict, despite handing a second presidential mandate to George W Bush, according to analysts at Madrid's Centre of Investigation for Peace (CIP) think tank.

"The country is now even more divided than it was over Vietnam," maintained Robert Matthews, CIP analyst and a University of New York professor of history as he outlined the potential future direction of US foreign policy to reporters in Madrid.

For Matthews, Bush was able to see off Democratic challenger John Kerry by racking up votes in the context of "a culture of fear" stretching back to the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"Bush's triumph also results from three million new evangelical voters going to the polls," Matthews added, as high turnout bolstered the incumbent in the race for the White House.

Possible crisis in North Korea

While fellow CIP analyst Mabel Gonzalez and Centre director Manuela Mesa agreed Iraq would remain for the foreseeable future the primary focus of foreign policy, Matthews warned that the apparently illogical doctrine of "pursuing those who don't have weapons - but not those who do" would engender more widespread difficulties.

"It's very possible there will be a crisis in North Korea or with Iran," Matthews predicted, lamenting that there is "no visible point of exit" from the Iraqi quagmire which has already "stretched out" US military capabilities to the limit.

Matthews criticised the Democratic camp for, in his view, believing that "to beat the Republicans they had to accept their foreign policy premises as well as those on terrorism or the war in Iraq."

He further criticised Bush for the president's "almost primitive certainty in his decision-making" which had led to "authoritarian" policy-making.

But he forecast that unilateralism would in a second Bush term likely be scaled back as some Republicans recognise the need to pursue international consensus.

Gonzalez regretted the gulf which had materialised between Washington and the European Union regarding the US-led "war on terror".

"The EU is well-acquainted with terrorism and has been for decades. It knows it better. The dialogue is more advanced (than in the United States).

"One cannot accept a unilateral vision of the world" in the face of the terrorist threat, Gonzalez stressed.

"EU public opinion was against Bush on Iraq, it does not back this view of the world. There should be co-operation (with Washington) - but not at any price."

Gonzalez observed that previous crises in US-European relations had tended to cement moves towards greater European union.

- AFP