Last Updated: 2008/12/05 21:19

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Inside America

U.S. Political Report

(Return to Japanese translation.)

George R. Packard
President, International University of Japan;
Director of the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, President, U.S.-Japan Foundation

George R. Packard was dean of SAIS from 1979 to 1993 and is now director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies as well as professor of East Asian studies at the school. He is also president of the International University of Japan. From 1965 to 1967, he was chief diplomatic correspondent for Newsweek. Prior to that, he served as special assistant to U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer. In March of 1998, he was appointed president of the U.S.-Japan Foundation.

Packard Report - Mar. 2006

Despite a drumbeat of cheerful and optimistic appraisals coming from the White House, it was clear in the past month that President Bush's foreign policy is coming apart at the seams:
  • The Shiite - Sunni battle in Iraq is turning swiftly into a civil war, and American forces on the ground seem unable to control it.
  • The European Union has broken ranks with Washington by offering immediate financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is about to be taken over by Hamas. The U.S. asserts that Hamas is still a terrorist organization that is ineligible for financial aid, and it sides with Israel by withholding aid.
  • Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice are quietly battling to control US policy toward Russia. Cheney wants to get tough with Putin, while Rice, an expert on Russia who speaks the language, would prefer a more pragmatic approach.
  • In the first poll of Americana troops in Iraq released on February 28, the American troops expressed an overwhelming desire to get out of the country. 72% of those polled said that the US should get out within a year, and of that group, 22% wanted to pull out immediately. This sentiment differs sharply from the carefully selected and stage-managed upbeat soldiers whom Bush interviewed for the public by satellite last fall.
  • Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld spoke to the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations in New York last week and was roundly criticized for "not getting it" in Iraq. Rummy argued that all the US needed to do was to put out better propaganda about the war effort. Those in the audience reported that he still doesn't understand that this is a battle for "hearts and minds" in the Islamic world.
  • President Chen Shui-bian, in defiance of strong warnings from Washington, has abandoned his National Reunification Program and is taking steps toward sovereign nationhood for Taiwan. If he moves forward, a crisis in US-China relations could evolve.
It seems likely that Rumsfeld will be asked to resign within several months. President Bush and his political advisor, Karl Rove, are concerned that the Republican Party will take a bad beating in the November Congressional elections if all ofthe above trends continue to worsen.

The one bright spot as seen from the White House is the US-Japan relationship. Bush is convinced that Prime Minister Koizumi is a reliable friend and ally. But even here one can see some second-guessing going on about Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine. Inside and outside the US Government, many influential policy hands are growing critical of Koizumi's position on visiting the Yasukuni Shrine. The New York Times even attacked Foreign Minister Aso in an editorial, calling him "Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister!" This is an almost unprecedented treatment of an individual Cabinet Member of a friendly ally.

Finally, the Times showed its utter contempt for Japan in a half-page picture of the women's figure-skating award ceremony. The photo, in vivid color, showed Silver medallist Sasha Cohen on one side, Bronze medallist Irina Slutskaya of Russia on the other, and no one standing on the winner's platform where Arakawa Shizuka was to receive her Gold medal moments later. This is "Japan-passing" in the extreme and there is no reasonable explanation for it.

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