Bush’s Mission to Jordan

Anyone who is surprised by the doings of the Bush party in the Mideast obviously wasn’t following his Asia trip last year.

I don’t know about Bush personally, but his staff and entourage were a source of great puzzlement and amusement to their Chinese hosts, not only on account of its size but also its apparent ignorance of China and the Chinese.

The obsession of Bush staffers with shopping was epic; so also was the size of the delegation, quite disproportionate to anything Bush was given to say or do in China. For the rest of it, arrogant, officious and pompous would be words that come to mind.

Only in Hong Kong was there public comment in the newspapers, of course, since in the People’s Republic Bush was an honored guest, and that would have been out of place. But you should sample the Hong Kong newspapers for what was said about the Bush party there, which will give you a pretty fair impression of the general foreign reaction on that trip.

DESMOND O’NEILL

Santa Barbara