Huge challenges for next US president

Whatever laws and protections the Bush administration has put in place have not increased public confidence. Racial profiling continues unabated, the US government and people are more cynical towards outsiders. The mammoth network of security and surveillance installed after 9/11 has made America one of the most watched societies in the world.

There is no such thing as a private world. To secure the safety of the American people, the Bush administration sifts through endless records both verbal and digital to ensure that nothing gets through its scrutiny. The administration decides if the data is considered safe.

The saddest part of the Bush presidency is that after 9/11, the international goodwill and sympathy towards the US was not nurtured or sustained. The US should have become a country the rest of the world looked up to. The outpouring of condolences should have softened decision-makers in the White House. Instead, the US toughened its resolve and further augmented its unilateralism. The war in Iraq is a case in point. The war was lost the very minute Bush made the decision without UN backing. American justice is for the global good. But nobody bought that. The "coalition of the willing", or whatever name the administration chose to use, was a travesty wrapped in good intent. The US can get help from friends and allies, but it would be better if that help came from a common endeavour - in this case the UN. When it comes to the use of raw power, which the US has in abundance, American leaders often do not think things through.

After Bush leaves the White House, whatever happens in Iraq will come back to haunt him and the rest of the country. Americans will continue to ask for decades to come, as in the Vietnam War, whether their sons and daughters died for a good cause. The new administration cannot abandon its responsibility in Iraq or Afghanistan which has become a lawless frontier state despite billions of dollars of assistance. The new administration must be seen to be kinder, gentler and more multilateral in its diplomatic conduct.