Global observers relieved, hopeful at results of mid-term elections

WASHINGTON — Observers of the U.S. election from around the world expressed hope Wednesday that the Democrats' declared takeovers of the House and Senate will force a quicker end to the Iraq war, largely unpopular in Europe and the Middle East, and greater scrutiny of President Bush's foreign and domestic policies.

From Paris to Pakistan, politicians, analysts and ordinary citizens said they hoped the Democratic takeover of the House would force Bush to adopt a more conciliatory approach to global crises, and teach a president many see as a "cowboy" a lesson in humility.

Bush is deeply unpopular in many countries, with particularly intense opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the U.S. terror detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and allegations of Washington-sanctioned interrogation methods that some equate with torture.

European sympathy toward the United States largely has evaporated since an initial burst of solidarity after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Bush's administration is viewed with suspicion, if not downright hostility, in many countries.

"Following the midterm slap in the face to the Bush administration, there has been little sympathy in Europe for the beleaguered White House," opined Der Spiegel, a German publication. "The day after the Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives, in much of Europe there is quiet satisfaction — and relief."

"The American people have spoken. Loud and clear," chimed in The Age of Melbourne, Australia. "It is possible that Mr. Bush has gone from emperor to lame duck."

There will be a tendency by foreign officials to "over-interpret" the congressional election results to mean a radical Iraq policy shift in a country where the president calls most of the foreign-policy shots, said Lee Feinstein, a former Clinton administration official who is now a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations.

Nonetheless, "this is good for America's image," he said. "It's a signal that there's a relative diversity of views in the United States and that the president's perspective is not the majority perspective in this country. It dents the ability of others who look to disparage the United States and say it's not a vibrant democracy where views are debated and policies are subjected to scrutiny."

The Democratic rise to power may be cause for concern in some areas. The Indian press is worried that Bush's promise to relax nuclear-technology restrictions to India could be hamstrung by a new Congress.

Trade agreements with countries such as China might receive more scrutiny given Democratic ties to labor. Democrats, who have a reputation for being more protective of U.S. jobs going overseas, will make it harder to achieve a global free-trade accord.

In China, some feared the resurgence of Democrats would increase tension over human-rights and trade and labor issues. China's surging economy has a massive trade surplus with the United States.

"The Democratic Party ... will protect the interests of small and medium American enterprises and labor and that could produce an impact on China-U.S. trade relations," Zhang Guoqing of the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a report on Sina.com, a popular Chinese Internet portal.

The prospect of a sudden change in American foreign policy could be troubling to U.S. allies such as Britain, Japan and Australia, who have thrown their support behind the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told broadcaster TV2 he hoped that the president and the new Congress would find "common ground on questions about Iraq and Afghanistan."

"The world needs a vigorous U.S.A.," Fogh Rasmussen said.

One thing that Damascus University political science professor Marwan Kalaban thinks will remain intact no matter who controls Congress is the United States' strong backing of Israel.

"It is extremely difficult to figure out which of the two parties supports Israel more," Kalaban wrote in Pakistan's Frontier Post before Tuesday's election. "Even if Democrats win the midterm elections, U.S. policy, particularly toward the Middle East, may not undergo fundamental change."

Still, foreign media delighted in characterizing the elections as a rebuke of Bush.

"The truth is that the North American people have voted against policies of murder, torture, wars without [justification]," the Russian news organization Pravda wrote. "The people of the USA do not trust George Bush and after six long years have finally understood what we have been telling them since before Bush was elected — that he is simply not up to the job."

In Paris, expatriates and French citizens alike packed the city's main American haunts to watch results.

Teacher Jean-Pierre Charpemtrat, 53, said, "Americans are realizing that you can't found the politics of a country on patriotic passion and reflexes. You can't fool everybody all the time — and I think that's what Bush and his administration are learning today."