12/01/2004|||110194408967872633||||||

THE VIEW FROM AFAR

Simon Jenkins thinks the pro-Yushchenko demonstrators are a mob.

Anne Applebaum sees it somewhat differently:

"Many of the same people who found it hard to say anything bad about Saddam Hussein find it equally difficult to say anything nice about pro-democracy demonstrators in Ukraine. Many of the same people who would refuse to condemn a dictator who is anti-American cannot bring themselves to admire democrats who admire, or at least don't hate, the United States. I certainly don't believe, as President Bush sometimes simplistically says, that everyone who disagrees with American policies in Iraq or elsewhere "hates freedom." That's why it's so shocking to discover that some of them do."

Swedish reader Christer Tamm says ex-ambassador Peter Unwin's let-them-eat-snowballs comments remind him of the "A Victory for Democracy" episode of Yes, Minister:

Jim Hacker: "Apparently, the White House thinks that the Foreign Office is full of pinkoes and traitors."

Bernard Woolley: "No, it's not. Well, not full."

|||Clive|||http://clivedavis.blogspot.com/2004/12/view-from-afar-simon-jenkins-thinks.html|||12/01/2004 11:15:00 pm|||||||||

|||