tehran times : Bush accelerated U.S. decline - by Jean Pierre Lehmann

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Bush accelerated U.S. decline - by Jean Pierre Lehmann

Jean-Pierre Lehmann, a professor of international political economy at IMD, has said, “I share the opinion of those who see Bush as one of the worst presidents the U.S. has had. Although the U.S. relative decline was perhaps inevitable, Bush has accelerated this process in many ways: economically, politically, morally.” In a recent interview with the Mehr News Agency, Lehmann added, “The catastrophic Middle East policy of the Bush administration is both a cause and a reflection of this phenomenon. Many things have been made worse, nothing has been accomplished on the positive side. The policy has also been riddled with contradictions.” On the U.S. policy toward Iran, he stated, “The main mistake of the U.S., ie not just Bush's, is not to have re-established diplomatic relations with Iran. Diplomatic relations exist not just for countries that happen to agree with each other, but especially for those that do not agree, so that they can continue dialogue. Even during the worst times of the cold war, Russia and U.S. maintained diplomatic relations.”