It’s no longer a joking matter. Foreign cooperation has become the issue of the hour, especially in Iraq. And so estranged are U.S. relations with many countries that just as the Bush administration is pushing for help from U.N. member states to bolster Iraqi democracy, four members of America’s meager coalition have pulled out. The Bush administration is also finding few volunteers abroad who will offer troops to secure the critical U.N. mission to set up Iraqi elections, NEWSWEEK has learned. As of last week just two nations had indicated interest, though “I don’t think anyone’s said yes yet,” says a senior U.S. official. Washington is so nervous it has even enlisted Pakistan, although President Pervez Musharraf has his hands full with Al Qaeda and the Taliban in his backyard. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari also pleaded for NATO to provide the United Nations with protection. But NATO refuses to do more than train Iraqi troops. On other key issues, too, like the resolution of Iraqi debt, the Europeans have reduced talks to a “slow roll,” as one Bush official puts it.
What’s the explanation? Turns out John Kerry may have been on to something. The U.S. presidential election is only four months away and “governments in Europe and elsewhere are waiting [it] out,” says a former senior foreign-policy official in the Clinton administration. “They don’t want to do anything to help Bush.” That may be a partisan view, but it is endorsed by several foreign diplomats. Very few will admit, even off the record, that they want to sway the election toward Kerry. But one senior European diplomat, in an interview with NEWSWEEK, came close. “Some countries in the European Union will not do anything to prevent a regime change in Washington,” he said.
Even some Bush officials say the imminent election provides a new “excuse,” as one puts it, for foreign leaders not to help. North Korea, too, may be sitting on a U.S. proposal to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for aid, says this senior administration official. “I do think there are people in North Korea waiting to see what happens in November. That’s why we need to keep pushing.”
Other reasons abound, of course, for the reluctance to help. Insurgents have turned Iraq into a political nightmare for foreign leaders by systematically kidnapping and sometimes beheading hostages from allied countries. (Just last week the Philippines gave in to terrorists’ demands and pulled out to save a hostage Filipino truckdriver.) Anger remains high, especially in Europe, over Bush’s reluctance to concede that he erred on Iraq despite the overwhelming evidence–most recently in a report by the GOP-controlled Senate intelligence committee–that his main case for war was without foundation. And Bush and America are so unpopular overseas, polls show, that many foreign leaders can’t agree to anything the president asks for without taking a hit in their own ratings.
For the Kerry campaign, all the anti-Bush sentiment abroad poses a delicate political problem. On one hand, the Kerry team is still trying to argue that the Democratic candidate will make a world of difference in resolving foreign crises. But Democrats also fear a backlash like the one Kerry inspired with his March comment. And they reject suggestions that Kerry is undermining U.S. policy the way, say, Richard Nixon alleged- ly did in 1968 with his “secret peace plan” for Vietnam. “By contrast, Kerry criticized Spain for pulling out of Iraq,” says the former Clinton official. “We’re saying to the allies, ‘We don’t understand why you’re not now helping’.” It may not be until November that we find out whether they will.
