It's a sad day

It's a very sad day when the US receives a lecture- appropriately- from China on an issue of the morality and effectiveness of foreign policy.  We might properly remind China of its invasion and repression of Tibet, but that would not dilute the truth of China's criticism of the policies of the Bush Administration.  - GP

 

BEIJING, Feb. 1 — A senior Chinese government official issued a rare public rebuke of President Bush on Thursday, accusing him of waging a "unilateral" battle against terrorists that had worsened global tensions.

The official, Ye Xiaowen, director of China's State Bureau of Religious Affairs, said in a front-page article in the overseas edition of People's Daily that Mr. Bush's past references to a "crusade" and to "Islamic fascism" were verbal gaffes that revealed his effort to turn the fight against terrorism into a religious war.

Partly as a result, he said, the United States had lost support for the war in Iraq and had frittered away the good will Americans gained after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"The more they oppose terrorism, the more terror they produce," Mr. Ye said in the article. "How many more troops will they send to die in the meat grinder" of Iraq.

Mr. Ye wrote that Mr. Bush had effectively "hijacked" one religion, Christianity, to engage in a battle against another one, Islam. That has strengthened Islamic fundamentalists and made the war unwinnable, he contended.

"Unilateralism and terrorism breed each other, but neither can overcome the other," he wrote.