Journey to the East



The Trouble with Saving the World.

President Bush   From the very beginning of his career, President Bush wanted to spread peace and democracy around the world. Because of those words he deserved to be taken seriously. The most important thing is when he was talking about peace he did not meant that it will be good and suitable for America only but for the rest of countries. First of all we wanted to defend America’s interests and its nation and he really could do that. He wants to remake the world according to his understanding of good and evil; he was a great believer in moral clarity. 

Many of those who dialed with him had not good expression. The British Prime Minister said that he behaved like heathen who comes to rescue the missionaries. The French Prime Minister said that talking to him was like talking to Jesus Christ. Europeans found the President ignorant because President’s thought and temperament were more theological with all its strength and weakness.   Little by little President Bush becomes second Woodrow Wilson. After WWI in a peace conference in Paris, Wilson was talking about peace and democracy too but nobody took it seriously. It was wrong time for such kind of vision but it did not stop him, he really believed in that so as time goes by people become call him “fuzzy dreamer”. And now, nearly 80 years after his death we can see the same policy in the White House. In series of speeches since Sept. 11, 2001, the President was shaped a “Bush doctrine” that commits the U.S. doing everything it can to eradicate terrorism, reform and neutralize rogue states. In his speech to the graduating class hi said: “Our nation’s cause has always been larger than our nation’s defense. We fight for a just peace – a peace that favors human liberty. We will defend the peace against threats from terrorists and tyrants. We’ll preserve the peace by building good relations among the great power. And we’ll extend the peace by encouraging free and open society on every continent.” Wilson could not say it better. 

Nowadays nobody believes in such words, they think it’s all about money or anything else. But on the other hand one European diplomat, who always listens for President’s speeches, says “He has a sense of mission that good should triumph over evil.” 

Many people now don’t believe in triumph of good but now we have unique opportunity to make the history and we will see the result.     

Elliot, Michael; Thompson, Mark “The Trouble with Saving the World”, Time, (2002, December), p. 108-112.


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  1. * kristinagray says:

    Wow, that was quite a loaded article from the TIME magazine, I couldn’t tell whether they sided with Bush or not from what you summarized. My take on President Bush is that he does NOT care what people think or write about him. All he cares about is that FREEDOM reigns and for many people in Europe or elsewhere, for that matter, in the US, they don’t understand his rhetoric. It is a difficult time we live in and I agree with your last sentence, let us see how history shows the results. I too believe that good eventually triumphs over evil. Though right now it would seem that is not the case. Great post!

    Posted 17 years, 1 month ago


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