At the recent meeting of the United Nations, everyone was expecting President Ahmadinejad of Iran to dominate the press and to be the loudest critic of the United States in front of the General Assembly. However, the person to make the biggest splash last week was not the president of Iran, but rather President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.
So what exactly did Chávez say? At the podium, Chávez, referring to President Bush's earlier appearance said, "The devil came here yesterday, right here. It smells of sulfur still today, this table I am now standing in front of."
Despite the fact that Chávez's comment was not very creative and not as sophisticated as President Ahmadinejad's lecture, the comment prompted horrified gasps and giggles all around the General Assembly. The sad part is that there were quite a few half-hidden smiles and genuine chuckles.
One can make the argument that these reactions are a result of the Bush administration's foreign policy. There is no question that, since Sept. 11, the United States has taken an understandably more aggressive stance, but the results have been upsetting a lot of countries.
Sure, there were probably better ways of going about it, like making sure you were not defending the invasion of a country based on false information and isolating all of your allies - but no one can change that now.
One has to look past Chávez's words to see a new threat forming from anti-Americanism, and, this time, it is not in the form of new terrorists.
Two weeks ago in Havana, a group of 118 countries met (including Venezuela, Iran, North Korea and Syria) to discuss Iran's rights in the nuclear debate and, no doubt, to discuss the overbearing United States. Now there is the threat of these countries working more closely together on the world stage to make life tough for America. Not only will this make reversing anti-American feelings around the world more difficult, but it will make achieving any of our goals much harder.
The President contributed to the beginning of this war of insults. He didn't think ahead when using ultimatums ("with us or against us") and calling countries part of an "axis of evil." Now, America is going to have a hard time keeping its influence around the world with all these countries continually pecking away at its reputation.
People also rose to defend the United States against the devil comment. Politicians on both sides of the aisle denounced the comments, and some made a point of highlighting the fact that Mr. Chávez was allowed to say what he wanted because he could exercise free speech, one of the great liberties in America. One aid to Ambassador Bolton stated that Chávez could exercise that right anywhere in the United States, and that it was sad that Chávez would not give that right to his own people.
Mr. Chávez took the aid's advice (ignoring the part about giving the right to his own people) while in Harlem, where he called the President an "ex-alcoholic" who tried to walk "like John Wayne."
And the United States response? Detain Foreign Minister Maduro of Venezuela at the airport until a "mistake" was cleared up.
Mr. Chávez's clever rebuttal: "This is a provocation from Mr. Devil," and that Bush was now out to kill him as revenge for the devil remark. Fidel Castro was also outraged, and Minister Maduro wants the United Nation to look into the incident.
America's problems seem to be piling up in the world and our influence slowly slipping away. One might think that would lead to a re-thinking of our foreign policy but our current administration is nothing but single-mindedly stubborn, refusing to change anything no matter what evidence appears to show that the current ways are not working.
As the chuckles about our president being the devil show, this means feelings abroad about America will not be warming up any time soon.
