The US Capitol Building Attack-Shock, Horror, and Shame

 

WORLD

Shock, Horror and Shame

The world watched with shock, dismay and horror as a “surreal scene” at the US Capitol, like little else seen in its history, unfolded on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported.

“Were this a different country on a different continent, we would be talking of a failed state,” BBC correspondent Nick Bryan tweeted.

Broadcasters around the world aired livestreams of the events as they unfolded, with some interrupting regular programming to show minute-by-minute developments as protestors loyal to President Donald Trump stormed through police barricades and mobbed the Capitol to disrupt a vote to formalize Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.

Many foreign observers, already following the elections in Georgia, reacted with alarm and even grief, especially in allied countries that have looked to US democracy for inspiration.

“The United States Congress has been the symbol of freedom and democracy around the world for centuries,” said Armin Laschet, the governor of Germany’s most populous federal state. “The attacks on the Capitol by fanatical Trump supporters hurt every friend of the United States.”

Across much of Europe, top officials echoed these sentiments. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the scenes of chaos “disgraceful.” In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians were “deeply disturbed” and that he was “following the situation minute by minute.”  The Organization of American States noted, “The exercise of force and vandalism against the institutions constitutes a serious attack against democratic functioning.”

The scene at the Capitol also marked an opportunity for countries criticized by the United States to turn the tables. Turkey, a NATO ally that has been widely criticized for jailing thousands of critics, academics, journalists and artists and has seen its relationship with the United States deteriorate, called on “all parties in the USA to show restraint and common sense.”

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said, “And for this country you will be eventually talking only about Russian/Chinese alleged meddling! Man shrugging #KeepCalmAndBlameRussia.”

Many around the world were already closely watching the US, in particular the run-off elections in Georgia. On Wednesday afternoon, those races were called for Democratic candidates – Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff – tipping the Senate to the Democrats and thereby granting the party control of both the White House and Congress. In spite of the lowered standing of the US on the world stage over the past four years, what happens in the US reverberates around the world, say foreign observers and officials.

“How I would like to be a voter of the #DekalbCounty in #Georgia! And vote #Ossoff,” former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta tweeted earlier in the day, referring to a Georgia county with a large number of Democratic voters.

“US and international politics over the next few years will depend on his victory,” he wrote. “Those votes will affect us, too.”