US: President Bush's "arrogant" foreign policy is damaging his country's standing in the world and threatening the safety of Americans living abroad, a group of US scholars said yesterday.
About 200 US students - 30 of them winners of the prestigious Rhodes scholarship previously held by Mr Bill Clinton - wrote an open letter warning that Mr Bush's actions have been "divisive and polarising".
"We . . . find it increasingly difficult to defend America against accusations that our country has misused its power," the letter said. "We witness daily how decisions that reinforce a perception of American arrogance are undermining rather than strengthening America's security goals and the safety of our citizens at home and abroad."
The letter was distributed by a group called Win Back Respect, a political organisation campaigning to "rebuild damaged relationships between the US and the rest of the world".
"During the past three years we have witnessed a dramatic change in attitudes toward the United States," the students wrote.
They said criticisms of Washington - accusing it of failing to listen to other countries, misrepresenting intelligence, pursuing war before other alternatives were exhausted, evading the Geneva Conventions, and torture and violations of human rights - were increasingly difficult to defend.
"Our country was given an exceptional opportunity after September 11th to marshal the support of the world and strengthen international organisations, but instead the actions of the Bush administration have been divisive and polarising."
Signatories to the letter included supporters of Mr Bush's Republican Party as well as Democrats and independents, most of them studying in Britain under Rhodes and other scholarships.
Previous Rhodes scholars include Mr Clinton and Senator George Mitchell.
Mr David Brogan, a Marshall Scholar studying at King's College in London, described himself as "a strong supporter of the Republican Party", but said he finds it increasingly difficult to explain or justify Mr Bush's actions. "Even when our aims are true, our actions have been marred by what is seen as a swaggering over-confidence that inspires more hatred than respect."