European papers slam Bush

2004-09-22 16:31

London - European newspapers Wednesday accused US President George W. Bush of refusing to face facts over Iraq after he called for greater international involvement in reconstructing the country in an address to the UN General Assembly.

The president's speech "systematically refused to engage with what actually has happened in Iraq," the Financial Times commented.

"The extent of the president's disengagement from the reality of a sinking Iraq is alarming," it said.

Bush "exhibited no sense whatsoever of grievous US policy mistakes, of the serious failures of the occupation authorities, or the extent to which the Iraqi misadventure had handed the initiative to jihadi terrorists," the business daily added.

The FT accused Bush of "solipsistic" assumptions and hailed Democrat presidential contender John Kerry's call Monday for a "great, honest national debate on Iraq" as a "welcome injection of seriousness" into the election campaign.

The centre-left Independent said Bush had missed an opportunity "to show that he appreciated the gravity of what is happening in Iraq."

Both the Independent and the conservative Daily Telegraph ran op-ed cartoons featuring the phrase "Four more years," a reference to Bush's efforts to secure re-election in the November presidential poll.

In the Daily Telegraph it is the US president, standing atop the UN headquarters in New York, who is hollering the words. But in the Independent Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda network, is portrayed sticking up an election poster supporting Bush at the dead of night in a war-ravaged Baghdad.

For France's centre-left Liberation, Bush's speech to the UN exemplified the "slightly autistic self-satisfaction" which it said was the dominant tendency in the US administration.

'Truth counts for nothing'

The conservative Le Figaro was little kinder, describing Bush as "impervious to criticism. ... Every new crime (in Baghdad) strengthens his conviction of having been right against those who accuse him of having invaded Iraq on false pretences."

The German daily Tagesspiegel, in an editorial headed "US, UN, Iraq: the truth counts for nothing," noted that Bush once again defended his invasion of Iraq whereas the situation there was one of "chaos."

Italy's Corriere della Sera observed that Bush "has forgotten that his go-it-alone approach has alienated many sympathisers with the US cause," warning it would take "more than an isolated appeal, during an election campaign," to regain a consensus.

In Spain the centre-left El Pais noted that Bush displayed "no intention of changing his ways after the chaos his invasion of Iraq has caused," while the conservative ABC, which backed the invasion, observed that Bush had "neither apologised nor admitted any mistakes."

The Polish nationalist daily Nasz Dzinnik said Bush was trying to get the international community to pay for his "reckless policy" in the Middle East, forgetting that "he attacked Iraq in defiance of the UN position."

- AFP