Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Bush meltdown begins




Which is this the man whom the Western media calls the crusader of the 21st century? Is he still capable of leading the American empire? The president is still busy defending his policies & justifying his adventures in Afghanistan & Iraq. His arguments, however, might not go down well with all in the US, as his policies fail one by one.

The latest in a series of events that exposed the inability of his administration to cope with the challenges of the new world order was the resignation of State Department’s Public Diplomacy chief Karen P. Hughes. Hughes is known to be one of the last members of Bush’s inner circles. Bush brought her to the State Department in an apparent effort to do an image makeover of the US in the muslim world. Was this counterbalancing game successful? If so, she would not have stepped down. Dr. Chinthamani Mahapatra, professor of International Relations at JNU told B&E, “Growing number of American population & Republican leaders are angry with the foreign policy of the Bush administration. Though the resignation of Hughes might have many dimensions, it shows that the administration is in a crisis of sorts. It’s a fact that America’s image is getting worse in the muslim world.”

Hughes is not the first presidential aide to leave. Bush’s troubles started with Rumsfeld’s resignation on 8th November last year. In the following month, Bush failed to get the appointment of John Bolton ratified in the Congress. Last August, his closest ally and the man who was called as the ‘Bush Brain’, Carl Rove, had to quit his team in wake of some fresh scandals. Sixteen frontline people have deserted the president. Does President Bush take any lessons from these setbacks? Most unlikely. He appears to be busy lobbying to get more war funds approved in the Congress & expand the global war zones.
(Published in Business and Economy, 29/11/2007)

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