Bush policies destabilizing for Asia: PERC survey

Bush policies destabilizing for Asia: PERC survey

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

The policies of U.S. President George W. Bush and his
administration have been destabilizing for Asia with Washington
seen as a bully, according to a poll released on Monday of senior
foreign business executives working in the region.

Two-thirds of the 114 respondents polled by the Political and
Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) last week said Bush's policies
were not helping Asia. Only 10 percent held a positive view.

"Perceptions of business people in Asia toward the policies of
the Bush administration in Washington are far from favorable...
the bottom line is that two-thirds of the respondents felt the
overall impact on Asia of U.S. policies under President Bush has
been destabilizing," PERC said.

"One of the first concerns of people in other countries,
including some of the closest allies of the U.S., was that
Washington was becoming too much of a bully in a unipolar world,"
the Hong Kong-based risk consultancy said.

Almost 90 percent of respondents felt Washington's influence
in Asia was on the decline with many worried the world's only
superpower would be handicapped by its involvement in the Iraq
war, PERC said.

"Iraq will be a critical test... it is one thing to oust a
dictator. However, it is another thing to fix the problems and
create a civil society in a country that has been shaped by
dictatorships or non-democratic regimes.

"It is not simply that Washington's track record here is poor
but that a growing number of people doubt the U.S. government's
ability to see a strategy through to the end, and that the flip-
flopping of policy can do more harm than if the original system
was left untouched."

More than 2,000 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the
March 2003 invasion, forcing Bush to defend his case for waging
war against the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein amid
plummeting approval ratings at home.

Bush's response to the trail of destruction left by Hurricane
Katrina in the southern United States had also left many to
question if the United States was a model to look up to,
according to the survey.

"The U.S. might like to act like the world's sole superpower,
but its response to Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters
in the U.S. have not impressed anyone with U.S. efficiency or
competence," PERC said.

Bush was due to leave for a trip to Asia on Monday, visiting
Japan before attending an Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea.
Following that, he goes to China and Mongolia.