Even with growing domestic problems, or perhaps because of them, the Bush administration's most strident hawks continue to demonstrate an astounding level of hubris when dealing with the rest of the world.

The latest example was Vice President Dick Cheney's speech earlier this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Besides the usual admonishment of the United Nations for not showing enough support for the U.S. military effort in Iraq, Cheney told the gathered leaders that because of American military intervention, "the days of Š feeding people a steady diet of anti-Western hatred are over" in the Mideast.

That/s a stunning conclusion that we believe is simply at odds with reality.

Surely the vice president cannot be that oblivious to the destabilizing effect U.S. policy has had on the Middle East. In fact, it could be argued that U.S. policy encourages hatred of the West 7 the harder we push, the harder they push back.

Nowhere is that principle more clearly demonstrated than in Iraq, where the level of anti-American behavior is exacerbated by the continuing presence of U.S. troops, and the Bush administration's obvious misjudgments and miscalculations about what is required to bring stability and democracy to that troubled country and region.

One Finnish lawmaker at the forum questioned the U.S. strategy, as portrayed by Cheney, of promoting peace and democracy by applying military force. She said perhaps Cheney forgot to mention economic development as a critical part of the equation.

Too many of President Bush's top lieutenants seem to have ideas mired in the attitudes of the wild, wild west era.

They would have us believe their militaristic approach to foreign affairs is making he U.S. and the world safer. There is considerable evidence to suggest that exactly the opposite is true.

Jan. 29, 2004