Bush and the Indonesian Muslims

Bush and the Indonesian Muslims

Four top Indonesian Muslim leaders are scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush when the latter arrives in the island resort of Bali on Oct. 22.

The Muslim figures concerned are the chairmen of the Muslim organizations Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah -- Hasyim Muzadi and A. Syafii Maarif, respectively -- along with rector of the Jakarta State Islamic University Azyumardi Azra, and chief of the Daarut Tauhid Islamic boarding school Abdullah Gymnastiar (Aa Gym).

The meeting is of course important in improving mutual understanding between the U.S. government and the Muslim community, especially that in Indonesia.

Bush has repeatedly said he is not gunning for Moslems in general, but only for terrorism. However, anti-terrorism discourses directed by the U.S. at certain Muslim groups, have left a terrible stigma among Muslims.

U.S. accusations that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group was behind the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) and that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, have never been proven to be true.

Hence, the Muslim community and the governments of Muslim countries have come to think that they are being treated unfairly by the U.S.

Thus, the four leaders are expected to represent the Indonesian Muslims in conveying their aspirations to Bush.

Whatever excuses Bush will make, we all hope that there would be a new mutual understanding between the U.S. government and the Indonesian Muslims for better relations between the two countries.

-- Republika, Jakarta

; ANPAk..r.. Otherop-Congress-money-Iraq Congress and money for Iraq JP/6/

Congress and money for Iraq

It appeared Thursday that President Bush and Iraqi administrator Paul Bremer had synchronized their messages: Things are going well in Baghdad. ...

The president has gone on the offensive to sell his Iraq policies to the American people once again, now that polls indicate they are having doubts. That's not just his right but his responsibility, given the sacrifices he is asking of American lives and American dollars.

But if progress in Iraq is to be measured by the presence of lights and air conditioning, then it's also to be measured by the presence of violence. ...

President Bush has asked for $87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, $66 billion to support our military presence and $21 billion for reconstruction. Some Democrats and even some Republicans have questioned those sums, suggesting that the money might better be spent on educating American children and rebuilding American cities and making sure American workers have health care. They have a point, but one that would have been better argued before the war than after.

As terrorism expert Jessica Stern says, the United States probably has more to fear these days from failed states, where anarchy fosters violence, than from those run by tyrants. If Iraq is not now a failed state, then it is at great odds of becoming one if Americans leave it worse than they found it. That said, the American people will not support spending $87 billion a year in Iraq indefinitely, and perhaps not for the five years that leaders have said we will need to be there. Even if Americans go along, the Iraqis are unlikely to. ...

-- Journal Star, Peoria, Illinois

; ANPAk..r.. Otherop-CIA-leak Investigating the CIA leak JP/6/

Investigating the CIA leak

Was that a wink, President Bush? And a nod? Ooh, and that deadpan delivery.

Now we get it. The identity of the White House leaker never will be known, will it?

Such cynicism is appropriate, alas, when Bush comes out and says, as he did Tuesday, that he wonders if government investigators can track down just who in the White House leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. It was her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who publicly accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq. The point of the leak, it's so apparent now, was to intimidate other such critics of the Iraq war into thinking twice before speaking out.

The gravity of the matter, specifically the consequences of such a deadly game of politics, can't be obscured by the President's attempts to minimize it all.

A vow to get to the truth, with the caveat that doing so will be quite difficult, is clear enough. Bush doesn't really want to know.

From full disclosure to circle the wagons. As secrets go, the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity could hardly be more transparent.

-- Times Union, Albany, New York