MEDIA REPORT U. S. FOREIGN POLICY UNDER FIRE;

UNCLAS HARARE 001849 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/PD (DALTON),AF/S (SCHLACHTER),AF/RA, INR/R/MR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KPAO KMDR ZI SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT U. S. FOREIGN POLICY UNDER FIRE; HARARE ¶1. Under headline "Bush's policy disastrous" the August 12 edition of the government-controlled daily "The Herald" carried the following op-ed by Tim Chigodo on page 8: ¶2. "Since the fall of the Communism in Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War, the United States has been engaged in bully tactics and is trying to impose leaders in Third World and Middle East countries. Since President George W. Bush came to power in controversial presidential elections. . .he has appointed himself arbitrator over destinies of millions of people in other countries around the world. . .In a bully fashion, the American president is using his country's economic and military power and has threatened to oust presidents in countries which do not agree with his foreign policies. Such countries include Zimbabwe, Iraq and Palestine. He wants to impose leaders on the countries, a move the people of the targeted countries have resolutely resisted. The U. S. has assumed a god-like arbitrage over other nations. The U. S. has been working tirelessly to tarnish the good intentions of socialism saying the ideology could not deliver the goods like capitalism of which America is the supreme incarnation. . .In its determined efforts to destroy communism, the U. S. has engaged in competitive struggle to prove to the world that it could out-materialize socialism and deliver what the ideology could not. The American leader wants to make decisions in Washington that affect the entire world, yet the world has got no say in his policies. It is very clear that America still holds paternalistic and imperialistic attitudes towards African and Arab states. The recent legislation on farm subsidies signed into law by President Bush will not only push millions of small African farmers out of business but impoverish them. Some analysts fear that the Bill will sabotage world trade negotiations launched in Doha, Qatar in November last year. . .The huge subsidies given to American farmers will contribute to global over production of wheat, corn, cotton and other basic crops. Small countries will be particularly hard hit since agriculture plays a very significant role in their economies. ". . .The U. S. has been relentlessly trying to topple Cuban President Fidel Castro for dumping capitalism in favor of socialism. . .Since the September terrorist attacks on the U. S., the Bush administration has turned to righteous vengefulness and sought to display its supremacy with some supernatural power which it could not do during the Cold War because of the Soviet Union's military rivalry. The U. S. is now using the attacks to bomb Moslem states under the pretext of fighting international terrorism. The man blamed for the terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden, has put up a challenge that has deflated American ability as a superpower and demoralized its security forces. . .This is not the first time the Americans will have lost a vicious war. They did so in Vietnam despite all the sophisticated weaponry. "Observers have described President Bush's foreign policy as disastrous. The U. S. administration has continued to support Israel that has violated Middle East peace accords with impunity. . .President Bush has also threatened to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with the assistance of Britain. . .The Americans can never claim to be holy and begin lecturing to Zimbabwe, Iraq and Palestine when their past is tainted with evil and injustices. The Americans and some EU countries were directly involved in the slave trade to be capable of selfless contribution to issues like good governance and democracy. They failed to denounce the social ills of racism during the racism and xenophobia conference in South Africa last year. They have their hands, historically, dripping with the incalculable suffering of the black people under slavery. The latest moves by the U. S. to topple leaders on other countries and replace them with its stooges has clearly shown that Mr. Bush regards the earth as America's experimental playing field." SULLIVAN