Daggers Out as Davos Turns on U.S. 
By Alan Freeman 
The Globe and Mail, Canada 

Saturday 25 January 2003 

Washington flayed at Swiss summit for its Iraq policies and role in
world 

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND -- Harsh criticism of U.S. policy over Iraq and
heated discussion about the United States' role as the world's only
superpower dominated the normally polite seminars of the World
Economic Forum yesterday. 

Again and again, world leaders and other participants in the
prestigious five-day talk shop criticized U.S. plans to topple the
regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and they charged the United
States with hypocrisy for its policies on human rights and refusing to
sign international treaties. 

It was a dramatic change in the tone of the forum, which has been
dominated in the past by U.S. chief executives, academics and
Washington policy-makers, and whose sessions frequently were used to
tout U.S. solutions to world problems. 

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Washington for
maintaining its own stock of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
while insisting that Iraq must stop its development of weapons of mass
destruction. 

"No one is interested in eliminating their weapons of mass
destruction," Mr. Erdogan said. "I mean all the countries in the
world, the U.S. included. 

"When you talk about WMD, you cannot [distinguish] between small and
large states." 

Earlier, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned U.S.
Attorney-General John Ashcroft during a debate that, "if you do start
[a war against Iraq] you will kill a lot of innocent people. You are
going to make a lot of people very angry, certainly a lot of Muslim
people." 

The Bush administration was also charged repeatedly with fomenting
racism by singling out people from Middle Eastern countries or with
dark complexions for extra screening at airports and border points as
part of its campaign against terrorism. 

These kinds of criticisms were too much for Senator Joe Biden, a
Democrat who is frequently critical of U.S. President George W. Bush
but clearly resented repeated criticism of the United States,
especially from Europeans. 

"I understand why the resentment exists," he told a forum session on
U.S. foreign policy. 

But he added: "We are not as bad as you make us out to be and in
comparison with your own country we're pretty damn good." 

Although he said his own views on civil liberties were diametrically
opposed to those of the Bush administration, he lashed out at the
French and Germans for thinking they were a model of how Americans
should behave. 

"Tell me about the acceptance of your French Arab brothers in France,"
he said sarcastically. 

Mr. Biden also said that if the United States had not decided to
intervene in Bosnia in the mid-1990s, the Europeans would never have
stepped in to stop the genocide. 

"All I'm asking for is balance," the senator said. "I'm sick and tired
of the lectures." 

Mr. Biden agreed that the United States had to work on its image
abroad and its policies. "But I don't think that anybody likes the big
guy on the block, ever." 

Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson
School of Public Administration, said Washington exacerbates the
problem by constantly reminding others that it is the world's only
superpower. 

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said that what
the United States needed was "better behaviour" rather than "a better
sales job." 

He said that he could not understand the Bush administration's
attitude on many international issues, including its recent vote
against a UN resolution that called on countries involved in the
battle against terrorism to respect human rights. 

"People want a leadership role from America," he said. 

In his appearance with Mr. Mahathir, Mr. Ashcroft clashed with fellow
panelists on several occasions. 

He took particular exception to a statement from the moderator that
"one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." 

"I respectfully disagree with the idea that these terrorists should be
endowed with the dignity of freedom fighters," Mr. Ashcroft said.
"Frankly, they're fighting freedom." 

He said that the Sept. 11 terrorists hated freedom and did not want
women to take an equal place in society. 

"I'm not willing to say that in order to avoid terrorism we have to
give up values that are fundamental and downplay them to appease the
terrorists," Mr. Ashcroft said. 

Klaus Schwab, founder of the forum, said he wasn't shocked by the
sometimes anti-American tone of the discussions. 

"We cannot hide away different opinions," he said, expressing the hope
that it would create more mutual understanding between Americans and
the rest of the world. 

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