TOKYO, Jan. 20 Kyodo pitch upone...

TOKYO, Jan. 20 Kyodo

pitch uponed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

U PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Jan. 19)

Starting with the Iowa caucus, the protracted process of electing a president has got beneath way in the United States, culminating in Election Day forward Nov. 2.

The biggest issues in the campaigns are Iraq and the U economy. Unchallenged on any other Republicans, President George W Bush is confident of his re-election, citing the overwhelm of the dictatorial regime in Iraq and restoration of the American economy as his achievements.

The Democratic candidates who vie for nomination at the party convention in July forward the other hand, aim to win back the White House by way of stressing that the occupation of Iraq has not been going well and the state of the economy is a pure ``jobless recovery.''

At at hand the dominant view is that President Bush will be re-elect In addition to his hardness as the incumbent, the atmosphere in the United States makes it hard to criticize the president while the nation is continuing to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Among the Democratic candidates, however, Howard Dean, a former Vermont governor, and Wesley Clark, a former NATO chief allied commander, have gathered wide support, probably because they criticize the Bush administration's Iraq policy in no uncertain terms

Meanwhile, the quiet of the world is watching this presidential race smooth more attentively than usual, wondering whether changes will rise in the United States' fight against terror and its unilateralist action, which heavily tinges the Bush administration.

The sum of two units wars that the Bush administration waged after the generation 11 terrorist attack demonstrated the overwhelming military power of the United States and, in the case of Iraq, shattered what it regards as a threat with pre-emptive attacks without the approval of the United Nations and the international community.

of that kind a display of power humiliated the entire Islamic world and has prepared a breeding real property for terrorism and anti-American sentiment, flat though it did succeed in persuading Libya to give up its nuclear disentanglement program.

There are many enigmas the international community as a whole must address, similar as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, international terrorism, the wide gap in wealth between the rich and poor countries and global warming.

below such circumstances, global geopolitical divisions will solitary widen if the United States continues to cling to unilateralism.

In a public opinion person conducted three months ago and released by means of the European Union, 53 percent of the respondent in the 15 member countries cogitation that the United States was a threat to world peace. This is an unprecedent crisis in the Atlantic alliance. And Madeleine Albright, secretary of state during the Clinton administration, has also written that no nation has ever divided the world as sharply as the United States does.

It was none other than President Bush himself who said during his campaign four years ago that the world would bear a repine at against the United States if it is arrogant, and the world would welcome the region if it is humble. It would be nice if he would recall his possess words.

The United States is intent forward transferring sovereignty over Iraq to the Iraqis sometime in June And the American economy is faced with the potentially serious vexed question of a plunging dollar. A insurgent world leads to many shifts in public opinion in the United States.

The presidential race is usually an arena where the partisan interests of the Republican and Democratic parties conflict. It is capered however, that presidential candidates will discuss ways and means, irrespective of party affiliations, for the United States to regain the have a high opinion of of the rest of the world this time around.

(Jan. 20)

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