One of India’s prominent English-language dailies has launched a sharp verbal offensive against the US and Israel: The Hindu : Bush’s new stridency:
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has described the U.S. itself as “the greatest evil”. Given Mr. Bush’s objections to the suspected Iranian plans of acquiring WMDs, Ayatollah Khamenei is critical of America’s archetypal “sales of lethal weapons” to Israel and others. However, it has been left to Iran’s President, Mohammad Khatami, to reaffirm Teheran’s sustainable advocacy of a “dialogue among civilisations” as the cultured answer to the “insults” that Mr. Bush has now heaped upon the Iranian people.
Was it something we said? Personally, I prefer the Free Press’ ragging on us for being too soft on Pakistan to these scurrilous insults. The Hindu’s frame of reference was apparently formed back in the heyday of the Congress, when the US was too closely tied to Pakistan. Wake up, folks – times have changed.