http://www.boston.com/news/daily/05/bush_bashing.htm

'Bush-bashing' goes out of fashion in Europe

By Kate Kelland, Reuters, 10/05/01

LONDON -- Not long ago, George W. Bush couldn't name the leader of Pakistan. Or India. Or Chechnya.

Europe watched in horror as Americans elected "Dubya" to the most powerful job in the world -- a man who had rarely traveled beyond U.S. shores and whose early foreign policy pledges included one to "keep good relations with the Grecians."

When Bush grasped the reins of power, Germans howled as he dumped Washington's commitment to the Kyoto protocol on climate change, Russia balked at his plans for a national missile defense shield and France bemoaned his "unilateralism."

But the world has changed enormously since suicide hijackers slammed passenger planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, leaving nearly 6,000 people dead or missing.

Now Bush certainly knows that Gen. Pervez Musharraf is in charge of Pakistan -- a far cry from the campaign trail gaffe that saw him muster nothing more than "the general ... general."

NO LONGER DOWN ON DUBYA

Indeed, Bush-bashing appears to be falling out of fashion in Europe as the West rallies its forces against terrorism.

In Britain, left-leaning Labor Member of Parliament Oona King spoke her mind.

"Before September 11, no one could have convinced me I would ever have a shred of respect for President Bush, but today I do respect the response of the American administration," she said.

Bernhard May, deputy head of the German Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank in Berlin, said Bush had "shown leadership qualities ... which one would not have thought he was capable of."

"President Bush and his team have done an excellent job," he said. "Only very few people outside America ... would have thought him capable of doing so well."

Spain's right-of-center prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, the first European leader to receive Bush, has always had good relations with the Republican president, a spokesman told Reuters.

But Spanish commentators expressed surprise at Bush's maturity in the face of such a major international crisis.

"Bush and his team up to now have surprised by their caution, their care not to criminalize Muslims in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world and to avoid an image of confrontation between Christians and Islam," said the daily El Pais.

Even in neutral Sweden, where opposition to the death penalty is deep-rooted, media commentators who enjoyed heaping scorn on Bush as an unintelligent, trigger-happy cowboy have grudgingly changed their tune.

Per Ahlin, foreign affairs editor of Sweden's biggest mass-circulation daily, Dagens Nyheter, said in a commentary that Bush's performance had been remarkable.

"The Bush administration is proceeding calmly and methodically, now they are listening keenly (to others), a trait they earlier lacked completely," he said.

RESPECT...OR SYMPATHY?

So is Bush enjoying a newfound respect overseas?

Skeptics note that few in Europe want to criticize Bush as his country's people, and its financial and defense systems, struggle to heal the wounds inflicted by the hijackers.

They say Europe's latest rhetoric on Bush has less to do with a genuine re-evaluation of his ability, and more to do with sensibilities about kicking a country when it is down.

The French daily paper Le Monde said Europeans may in fact be following the example of U.S. politicians, who have largely dropped their political differences to rally behind Bush.

"A lot has been done to reinforce Bush's stature and to eliminate or at least reduce any doubt over his capabilities," it said. "Such doubts would weaken the United States' front against the enemy and its relations with its allies."

-- Anonymous, October 05, 2001