quinta-feira, 5 de junho de 2003

AMERICA GOES BACKWARD


America Goes Backward in The New York Review of Books

Está perigoso o mundo, e não é só na velha Europa que habita a dita 'histeria' anti-americana, ou melhor a ideia que a administração actual dos EUA é um enorme embush, porque lá mesmo a vida não está facil.

America Goes Backward (Stanley Hoffmann): «Less than two and a half years after it came to power, the Bush administration, elected by fewer than half of the voters, has an impressive but depressing record. It has, in self-defense, declared one war—the war on terrorism —that has no end in sight. It has started, and won, two other wars. It has drastically changed the strategic doctrine and the diplomatic position of the United States, arguing that the nation's previous positions were obsolete and that the US has enough power to do pretty much as it pleases. At home, as part of the war on terrorism, it has curbed civil liberties, the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and the access of foreign students to US schools and universities. It holds in custody an unknown number of aliens and some Americans treated as "enemy combatants," suspected but not indicted, whose access to hearings and lawyers has been denied. The Republican majority in both houses of Congress and the courts' acceptance of the notion that the President's war powers override all other concerns have given him effective control of all the branches of government. The administration's nominees to the courts would consolidate its domination of the judiciary.»

Um texto a consultar.