A rchive Date
[ 23-04-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Terrorism ]
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[Time world stepped back from 'yawning abyss'
By JIM HOAGLAND
April 19, 2002, 6:17PM
A two-day military coup flares in Latin America and subsides. Romans march in spring sunshine as they protest the latest perceived outrage of their latest serial prime minister. And French voters troop to the polls with a curled national upper lip, baring cynicism and suspicion of the 16 - yes, 16 - men and women competing to be their president. Who said the world would never be the same?
Continuity exists in world politics. But it exists today more in form than substance. Deep fears, burning anger and other profound emotions that Arab suicide pilots and American military retaliation have unleashed around the world are at work changing the way we think now.
The last decade featured good intentions and comfortable self-absorption. This decade begins as an era of global polarization. The world's own Weltanschauung runs toward a mood of deadly desperation. Charles de Gaulle said his job was to be France's psychoanalyst. He labored to get the French to overcome the trauma of defeat and collaboration in World War II. The political leaders of today need to respond with similar insight into the emotional wounds that Sept. 11 and its aftermath have inflicted on their nations. Otherwise, they risk losing both their ability to work together and the trust and support that the war on global terrorism galvanized behind them.
The current French presidential campaign offers evidence of this brittle mood abroad. So does the deliberate disrespect that Arab leaders manifested toward Colin Powell during his failed mission to halt Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed. The ascendancy of the dark side of politics also shows in the opportunism of the growing number of nations who are neither with nor against President Bush, but out to get what they can from him.
Even Israel's Ariel Sharon and Russia's Vladimir Putin use Bush's war as cover for their own objectives. The campaign in France pauses briefly today to choose two survivors for a May 5 runoff. The voters' fear of a widely perceived rising tide of crime and violence and their hostility to immigration have dominated the campaign and given a late surge to the xenophobic campaign of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his National Front. Le Pen's 13 percent to 14 percent in the polls puts him about four points behind the virtually deadlocked front-runners, center-right President Jacques Chirac and socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Immigration has been an issue in previous elections. But in the new mood of insecurity, Chirac has built his entire campaign around a pledge of "zero tolerance" of crime. Jospin, in a Jimmy Carter-like moment, apologized to voters for "erring through naivete. I thought that if we brought unemployment down, we would bring insecurity down."
The Sept. 11 attacks, crisis in the Middle East, anti-Semitic outbursts in France and other events have produced what Le Pen calls "the lepenisation" of the French soul: "Events have confirmed the analysis I originally made and have led the other political candidates to adopt a language close to mine. I have been normalized."
The corrosive quality of post-Sept. 11 politics surfaced as well on Powell's journey among the Arabs. It started with Morocco's King Mohammed VI keeping Powell waiting for two hours and then dressing him down publicly. It ended with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak snubbing Powell by canceling a meeting in Cairo. Bush must now wonder if Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah will keep their April 25 date in Crawford, Texas, and what message the Arabs are sending him.
The terror of Sept. 11 was a moment of enormous shame for Saudi Arabia and for many Arabs and Muslims around the world. This was apparent in an initial rush into denial that has not run its course. Shame is a powerful weapon in Arab society. It must be projected outward. The French and other Europeans meanwhile feel insecure and trapped between the polarized positions that the United States and Arab governments are adopting as emotions rise on both sides. Attempts to make Americans the scapegoats for Sept. 11 and its difficult aftermath will only further enflame a dangerous situation.
It is a time for all to pause, take a deep breath and step back from a yawning abyss
Hoagland is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist, specializing in foreign affairs. hoaglandj@washpost.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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