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WASHINGTON: The explosive issue of how to handle
America’s enemies detonated into the
US election campaign Thursday after President George W. Bush implied
Democrats want to appease terrorists.
Democratic White House hopeful
Barack Obama fought back hard, accusing Bush of plumbing the
“politics of fear” with his comments in Israel, while allies
said the president transgressed by launching a partisan attack on
foreign soil.
But Republican candidate John
McCain joined in a tag-team attack on Obama, who favors direct
negotiations with US foes including Iran and Syria, as a key foreign
policy flashpoint of November’s general election erupted.
“Some seem to believe that we
should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some
ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all
along,” Bush told the Israeli parliament.
“We have heard this foolish
delusion before. We have an obligation to call this what it is—the
false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited
by history,” he said, drawing parallels with the 1930s
capitulation to the Nazis.
The White House denied the
comments directly targeted Obama. But the Illinois senator, who is
looking to eliminate Hillary Clinton from the Democratic race and
switch to a general-election footing, waded into the row.
“George Bush knows that I have
never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president’s
extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of
fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally
Israel,” Obama said.
“It is sad that President Bush
would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of
Israel’s independence to launch a false political attack,” said
Obama, who daily adds to his overwhelming lead over Clinton as the
Democratic nominating race draws to a close.
“Instead of tough talk and no
action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all
elements of American power—including tough, principled, and direct
diplomacy—to pressure countries like Iran and Syria.”
McCain then tried to turn the
spat to his advantage, saying Obama had made a “serious” error
in offering to talk to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a week
after suggesting Obama was the favored candidate of Hamas.
“It shows naivety and
inexperience and lack of judgment to say he wants to sit down across
the table from an individual who leads a country that says that
Israel is a stinking corpse,” McCain told reporters on his bus.
Senator Joseph Biden was one of a
slew of Democrats who sprang to Obama’s defense, accusing Bush of
indulging in an “ugly pattern” of using national security for
political gain.
After describing the
president’s remarks as “bullshit,” the Senate foreign
relations committee chairman accused the Bush administration of
hypocritically pursuing talks with North Korea and, in the past,
Libya.
“Under George Bush, the Middle
East has become much more dangerous. The United States and our
allies, including Israel, are less secure. His policy has been an
abject failure,” he told reporters.
“For him to call those who
rightly see the need for change ‘appeasers’ are truly
delusional. And for him to do it from abroad is truly
disgraceful,” Biden added.
For her part, Clinton denounced
Bush’s comments as “offensive and outrageous.”
--AFP
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