The world left the US behind

[EV_Ares]

If you look at the issues being debated in the wider world, the US is not at the forefront of global debate on any of them - except terror and security. Tim Watkin/The Guardian

As George Bush strolls into the leaders' meeting at Apec, I half expect to see him rubbing his eyes in a somewhat sleepy, surprised manner, like a bear coming out of hibernation.

I've just been out of the US for a fortnight, and returning to the States this past week I can't help but notice how cut-off and caught up in its own concerns this country is at the moment.

I keep thinking of Rip Van Winkle or the film While You Were Sleeping, where a character goes into a coma or long sleep and awakes to find the world a very different place. Except in this instance Bush is Van Winkle and the film title would be While You Were Iraqing.

This is Bush's seventh Apec meeting, so you'd expect him to be a comfortable and dominant player. Yet there's a sense everyone else has moved on, while he and his country are still stuck in the same place they've been for years.

The US is still very much a country at war, with so much of its focus is on its troops in the Middle East. As a measure of his priorities, Bush is actually leaving Apec early, returning to Washington to prepare for the Petraeus report.

There seems to be little oxygen left in the White House, and even in the mainstream national debate, for the issues on the agenda of the other Apec countries - climate change, free trade, and tariffs. Sure, they get mentioned here, but they're not nearly as dominant on the political or news agenda.

(Entire article @ UK Guardian Link below:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tim_watkin/2007/09/the_world_left_the_us_behind.html

[valerief]

1. "While You Were Iraqing" or "While You Were Iraqing Up the US Deficit" nt

[TexasLawyer]

2. kick

[dbt]

3. Alas, no. The U$ decided to sit out the 21st Century.

[leeroysphitz]

4. Bill Clinton spoke of building bridges to the 21st century.

* came along and promptly burned them.

[Ravachol]

5. Or...

Sold them to the Saudis?