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

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Otherop-Congress-money-Iraq
Congress and money for Iraq
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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

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Investigating the CIA leak
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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