Tuesday, May 4th 2004
by Keith Smith

What both we and the United States Ambassador, Roy Austin, understand is that he is here to serve the interests of the United States and we, on our part, will not fault him if he interprets that to mean serving the interests of his president, George Bush, the man who appointed him.

What Dr Austin does not seem to appreciate is that no media anywhere has the responsibility to serve as the public relations arm of the United States government and is, certainly, not under any obligation to balance its criticism of the United States with either reportage or comment about its "good works" however numerous and well-meaning in the ambassador's eyes they happen to be.

As an ambassador, politically-appointed or not, Dr Austin can hardly be unaware that countries, through their governments, act primarily in their own interests and there is now a growing body of commentators, even within the United States itself, who truly believe that his country's Iraqi adventure is not in the best interest of either the world or, indeed, the very America that the war was supposedly launched to "keep safe from terrorism".

It is in this context that Dr Austin should view the anti-American line taken by columnists here and the lack of letters supporting the Bush administration's point of view as it relates not only to the invasion of Iraq but to other aspects of his president's foreign policy. The truth is that the people who write letters to the newspapers are almost unanimous in their condemnation of that foreign policy, with the one supportive letter he cites amidst the criticising many being indicative of the overall trend.

Dr Austin may well wonder at this given the number of Trinbagonians clearly still eager to get American visas for holiday purposes or even permanent residence, but surely he is worldly enough to know that people make economic decisions even if they run counter to their held political and even philosophical beliefs. Besides, the people who write letters to newspapers do not conform to the norm in that not only do they hold strong beliefs on just about everything under the sun but they are ever ready to publicly sound off on them.

Like it or not, the truth, Mr Austin, is that whatever humanitarian contributions the United States makes to the rest of the world (and even these are often pilloried for being less than is to be expected from the wealthiest and most powerful country on the planet) represent the small picture. The big picture has to do with American actions that people deem decisive to the fate of the world and which are, ironically, determined in large measure by your own home-grown media.

Indeed, it would be interesting to see the rabid reaction of your own media were you to have the temerity of accusing them of having an anti-American agenda simply because they happen not to believe, as you clearly do, that what is good enough for George Bush is good enough for the United States. But you are an appreciated guest here and, frankly, Your Excellency, we wouldn't wish that on you.