Daniel Chirot, international studies professor

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Related stories Vonne VanLanginham, Army brat and military mom Aziz Junejo, TV-show host of 'Focus on Islam' Briana Joslin, Garfield High-School student The Rev. Joseph Fuiten of Cedar Park Assembly of God Octavia Butler, science-fiction author Ronald Slye, human-rights expert James Keeffe, former prisoner of war Al Isaac, retired colonel and corrections officer trainer Other links Talk About It: Online forum on prisoner abuse

It's one thing when people who already dislike the U.S. have their opinions confirmed. "What's changed is that people who want to think well of us, who basically agree with us, are now very suspicious of us," says Chirot, professor of international studies and sociology at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.

The abuses in Abu Ghraib prison have added to the growing disdain for the U.S., Chirot says. "It says we're hypocrites, we're liars — that we don't have those values (we profess to have)."

This country's leaders continue to deny that they handled the occupation of Iraq incompetently, which contributed to the abuses in the prison, Chirot believes. "(Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld said it's a few bad people, and not the system. But it's the system," Chirot says. "There are going to be a few very young soldiers, reservists, who are going to get blamed for this. And the people who are really responsible are not going to get blamed. Everybody knows that."

Chirot, who was born in France, came to the U.S. as a child, and travels in Europe frequently. He voted for the current President Bush and describes as "actually quite conservative."

He was surprised and distressed, though, to find Bush expressing "obvious contempt for everything foreign," Chirot says. "That's not a very smart thing to do publicly."

Since World War II, no president, including Bush's father, has believed the U.S. could thrive without friends around the globe. "We're not so big and powerful that we can shape the world without a lot of help,'' Chirot says.

"The incompetence of this administration in diplomatic matters is quite appalling. They've antagonized all the people who should be on our side and would be predisposed to like us. It's a catastrophe for us and very dangerous. I think it's very serious."

— Carol M. Ostrom

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

Talk About It

More local news headlines...