Voices from afar

Last week, a Times editorial series explored the extent to which U.S. leadership in the world suffered during the last eight years and what steps a new president should take to repair it. In conjunction with those editorials, The Times asked a variety of people around the world to answer two questions: How did the foreign policy of the Bush administration affect them and their countries? And what are their hopes for the new administration? What follows are edited transcripts of their answers.

Asunta Wagura

Nairobi, Kenya

Before Pepfar (the $18-billion President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief launched in 2003), access to treatment for Kenyans was a faraway dream. Drugs were too expensive. We were burying so many people. Now treatment is a reality.

I started taking Pepfar drugs in 2006. I don’t think I would have attempted to have my baby if not for Pepfar. They gave me the right advice, told me which drug regime to take, what to give my baby after birth. It helped prevent transmission to my baby. [Wagura gave birth to an HIV-negative boy in 2006.] The program is not just about drugs. It’s about empowering people to live their lives.

I wasn’t surprised when Bush created the program. I met with him and [former British Prime Minister Tony] Blair. There were several AIDS activists there, and we outlined what was needed for Africa. Shortly after that, he launched the program.

I think Obama will continue what Bush started. We are a little worried that [with the global financial crisis] the kitty might go down. We don’t have unrealistic expectations of special favors, but our prayer is that, when it comes to these life-saving treatments, the U.S. has a sustainable plan to finish what was started.

-- Wagura, an AIDS activist and executive director of Kenya Network of Women, has AIDS/HIV.

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Ivan Marchuk

Moscow

President Bush was not subtle. He considered every corner of the world a zone of U.S. interests, designated various countries as enemies of the United States and declared wars on them as easily as blowing his nose. In the process, Bush made Russia show her teeth and become more authoritarian in response. Back in the 1980s, the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan destroyed our country. But it appears that Bush is incapable of drawing any lessons from history. The endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan sucked billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy, basically sucking it bloodless. The plunge the U.S. economy took brought down the rest of the world, and Russia is no exception.

The fact that we’ve reduced salaries in our company and cut personnel by five times in the last few months can be largely attributed, among other things, to the stupid blunders of the Bush administration. Our main investor thinks housing construction will not be a very promising business in the foreseeable future and may cut his investments in our projects altogether. I don’t have a personal grudge against Bush. But I think his contribution to unleashing the current world crisis shouldn’t be underestimated.

I pin big hopes on Obama’s administration. I think Obama should concentrate on finding ways to mend the U.S. economy. I have a feeling he and his team have a plan to do it fast. We’ll be watching their efforts with great attention, and, if they are successful, I think Russia will copy their methods. Obama should try to mend the utterly rotten relationship with Russia. If the United States wants Russia to be more democratic, it should do its best to make Russia an ally instead of turning it into an enemy, as the Bush administration managed to do. Many people in Russia now look to Obama with hope.

-- Marchuk, 51, is a Russian businessman and strategic planning manager for the Russian construction company Glavmosstoi.

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Raad Rasheed Khafaji

Baghdad

On a personal level, President Bush was good for me. During Saddam’s time, my personal future was uncertain. My future, as well as my family’s future, was threatened. I was forced to leave Iraq in 1991. It was because of the embargo, Hussein’s foreign policies. He was not going along with the international community and waged wars in the region with neighboring countries. President Bush presented a hope and new vision.

My economic situation has changed. I am back inside my country. I feel that I can live within the means that anyone from the middle class dreamed of having, like owning a house, a car, sending my children to schools, buying them new clothes for special occasions. I can arrange a picnic with them!

My relationship with society is different from what it was when Iraq was under the control of one political party. I had felt isolated and reclusive. You had to keep silent and not participate in public life to avoid any mistake. It was not possible for me to study for a master’s degree, because if somebody forwarded his papers for that, the security and the party associations would send for personal and security information about that person, and that was enough to create problems. Now I have this chance, although it is late.

The Americans were hasty on the issue of democracy. Things differ in countries undergoing change like Iraq. Here, justice must be achieved first, and then democracy. The priorities of the American project, I think, are not convenient for a country like Iraq, which has ethnicities, religions and sects, and people who consider themselves marginalized. The largest sect in Iraq, the Shiites, mixed religion with politics. The Americans didn’t know with whom they were dealing. They didn’t know which elites were influential. It seemed as if the Americans came to support those politicians who were religious more than those who were secular. This caused confusion. President Obama can aid the economic situation. If there is improvement in the economy, the political process will witness improvement.

What I want from the new administration is openness in its relationship with Iraq and the neighboring countries. Bush’s administration sought tension between Iraq and its neighboring countries. We want to see more openness. The new administration should understand that Iran has the right to seek a regional role in the area. Iran must be a player (not necessarily influential) among the regional powers in the area. President Obama should shape a relationship with the countries Bush considered rogue.

But America must remain in Iraq for at least 10 or 15 years. Iraq is not capable of managing its affairs without American support.

-- Khafaji, 45, is a Shiite and is studying for a master’s degree in Arabic literature. He returned to Iraq in 2001 after a decade abroad.

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Brahma Chellaney

New Delhi

The public perception in India is that Bush has had a real positive impact in the transformation of U.S.-India relations, which is true. But he leaves wreckage stretching from Iran to Pakistan to Afghanistan that will cost India dearly. The entire region, because of the Bush doctrine, is now a contiguous arc of volatility. This will exact a heavy cost regionally and internally. The attack on Mumbai that India suffered is one such follow-up cost from the mess Bush leaves. Personally, I feel great relief at his departure. He has caused such damage to U.S. interests, it will take a long time to recover. Taking over will not be easy. The economy is in shambles; you have two raging wars. I wish Obama all the luck.

The new president needs to have more engagement with Iran. He needs to bear in mind that the surge he has planned for Afghanistan comes too late in the day. Seven years of military intervention has created a Pashtun backlash. The U.S.-India relationship is set to grow closer no matter who’s in the White House; the problem is with the countries around India. In addition to Pakistan, you see the isolation of Burma [Myanmar]. Laura Bush’s obsession has only pushed Burma into China’s lap. I hope Obama’s foreign policy on China doesn’t brush human rights under the rug, as Bush did. Bush showed up at the Beijing Olympics as though nothing had happened. I hope Obama’s stance is more principled. A principled stand sets a standard for everyone.

-- Chellaney is a strategic affairs specialist at the Center for Policy Research.

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Fawzi Abdullah Naif

Ramadi, Iraq

My whole life changed because of Bush’s policy in Iraq. I was a brigadier general in the army. I had my guards. My social life was different. I was shaving my beard every day, while now it’s every five or six days. My clothes were completely different. Now, I seldom iron my clothes. I am getting a pension that is not enough for my family requirements. I am doing nothing. I chose my life in the military, but I am forced to live this life now.

Iraq was one of the strongest countries in the region; now it is occupied. It is almost divided. The government is not so strong as to control all parts of the country. Bush destroyed everything in Iraq, all walks of life. He had not done anything good for Iraq. He came to Iraq for oil and protection of Israel. The democracy they are talking about is just chaos. There is no respect for others’ opinions. It is a democracy of killings.

What I want from the new president is to withdraw the foreign troops from Iraq and to reinstate the old Iraqi army to control the borders. I also want the federalism idea to be canceled.

-- Naif, 53, was a brigadier general in the old Iraqi army.

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Nasrine Soutedeh

Iran

I was summoned to the revolutionary court last summer. My interrogator accused me of contacting foreigners and Iranians based abroad. My interrogator asked me why I did an interview with Voice of America and whether I had been paid for the interviews. I was not paid by VOA, though it is not a crime to be paid. But if they could have proved that I had been paid, I would have been put in jail.

Recently, when I was awarded an Italian human rights prize, I was forbidden to go out of the country to pick up my award. The reason was because of hostile relations with the U.S. and the West. There is no chance for any peaceful debate, and all civil society activists are considered suspect as long as these hostile relations with the U.S. exist.

Any hostile or reconciliatory gestures between the U.S. and Iran directly impact the political space in our society. Activists in Iran, therefore, welcome establishing an ambience of peace and reconciliation between Iran and the U.S. It will be conducive to growing civic dialogue, wisdom and rationality in our society.

I have a dream that if both sides come to the negotiating table based on goodwill, reconciliation and peaceful-mindedness, then civil society activists would be under less pressure in Iran. In such a case, human rights activists here could get in touch with American counterparts without fear, in contrast to now, when any contact by Iranian civic activists with America is regarded as a crime by the government.

-- Soutedeh is an Iranian human rights lawyer.

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Teresa Campos

Caracas, Venezuela

Bush was horrible. We all thought he did a bad job, made bad decisions. He killed a lot of innocent people in Iraq, for what? With the excuse there were weapons there, and then couldn’t admit his mistake when there were none. He wiped out a lot of people and also the ancient Babylonian culture. Obama should think more about his own country. Of course, he has to pay attention to international affairs, but he should think more of his own people, about their health, housing, drugs and delinquency, the social problems, all the things that Bush left to one side. Bush was the worst.

Campos, the mother of three boys, is an architect and set designer for television productions.

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Interviews were conducted by Edmund Sanders in Nairobi, Sergei L. Loiko in Moscow, Raheem Salman in Baghdad, Mark Magnier in New Delhi, Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and Chris Kraul in Caracas.