so now it looks like bush won't put british citizens before the military tribunals. maybe not australians either. this means, literally, a person's life or death may depend on where they happen to have been born. (britain has no death penalty) the difference in treatment for brits and aussies is attributed to the fact that the british and australian governments are close allies in the war against terror. i wonder what the government of pakistan is thinking when they read that? i don't have a list, but i bet there are more pakistanis in guantanamo than the number of british and australians combined. the musharraf government has stuck its neck out to appear to be a good u.s. ally. so has kuwait and at least 12 kuwaitis are currently detained by the u.s. what about the saudis? (who are not good allies in my opinion, but the official bush party line is that they are) it seems to me that the difference in treatment is not dependant on how good of any ally the country is, but rather whether or not it is a developed country, or has a muslim majority. i don't think i'm going on a limb here, i am sure the average pakistani will notice this too.
things like this make me wonder why so many americans think foreign policy is bush's strength. to me, he seems totally inept. by rewarding britain and australia, he will probably piss off virtually everyone else. when we act like this the appropriate question is not: "why do they hate us?" but "why does anyone like us?"
on a related note, other countries won't contribute troops to bring iraq under control without a u.n. mandate. anyone remember after september 11th when we had the goodwill of virtually every other nation on earth? over 100 countries offered support in afghanistan. is there any way a president could do worse on the foreign policy front than to lose that kind of international support in less than 2 years?
