What Other Think

France:
Christians in the East are in danger. This is not a new thing, but the rise of Islamism, the increasing tension between Sunnis and Shiites and the growing sectarianism of Arab societies generally, has led to increasingly vulnerable Christian minorities being pushed into exile. This is one of the adverse effects of the George W. Bush Administration's "crusade" in favor of Democratic values. Under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, Christians in Iraq were treated no worse than anyone else......Christians could practice their religion out in the open and without fear, and as long as they renounced politics like all other citizens. The American intervention swept away the dictatorship, but did nothing to improve the plight of Christians........ Islamization and the rise of extremism has pushed them into a clandestine existence....

Brazil:
It's no surprise that President George W. Bush has drifted off course on the question of immigration. That's what happens when officials look to solve complex problems by thinking of their own survival rather than the people's interests. Faced with a divided Congress, under the weight of public opinion that demands serious action, and cornered by gigantic demonstration by immigrants that feel threatened, Bush is in search of common ground. And in his effort to please everyone, he is making Democrats, religious voters and the Latin American electorate unhappy.

Pakistan:
As has recently been reported in the international press, yet again the incumbent President of the United States is planning a massive bombing campaign against a sovereign country. This time that country is Iran, and the plan, which is almost sure to move forward, is to use bunker-busting nuclear bombs to destroy key Iranian nuclear weapons facilities. Given the tenor of the present U.S.-Iran stand-off, it seems highly likely that America will use nuclear weapons in the upcoming conflict.....Were America to use these weapons on any country today, it would have devastating consequences for humanity and the environment, not only in the country attacked but in the surrounding countries as well. Therefore, principally speaking, even a madman should shirk from inflicting such a nuclear attack on the human race.

Great Britain:
Call it the Great Wall of America.......something has snapped in one part of the American psyche....there’s something else at work here: an unease, a panic, a sense of helplessness and being beleaguered that has plagued the American psyche since 9/11. On that day, the pristine separation between America and the rest of the world was abolished......Mass deportations? Some clearly want them. As one writer put it on a right-wing website last week: “Not only will (mass deportation) work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6m Jews . . . it couldn’t possibly take more than eight years to deport 12m illegal aliens.....” This is the hidden racial and cultural subtext of the current debate. This is what fuels the emotion. And as grassroots Republicans lose faith in their own president’s response to 9/11, they naturally reach to a solution as simple as it is draconian.
Posted on The Human Stain