Steve Holland, writing for nzherald.co.nz, notes that Bush was highly critical of Barack Obama's stated willingness to meet leaders of so-called "hostile" nations without preconditions. Obama believes that current U.S. policy is a failure and it's time to take a new approach.Bush, referring to Obama's promise to meet with Raul Castro of Cuba, said that "now is not the time" for such a meeting.
Holland writes, falsely, that "Bush has steadfastly refused to meet leaders of hostile nations, saying it would send the wrong message to the world."
Amanda Terkel, at Think Progress, describes Bush's response to Obama's statement that the president of the United States "should never fear to negotiate" with those countries that are hostile to us.
That is wrong, said Bush. "It will send a discouraging message to those who wonder whether America will continue to work for the freedom of prisoners. It will give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity."
Such hypocrisy is stunning, even though we've seen it before!
Bush is the leader who has locked people away secretly for years, used torture to pry secrets from them, and denied them access to redress through legal channels. Bush is the one who authorized secretly rendering suspects to unknown countries where they could be tortured in secret! Bush is one of those who suppress "human rights and human dignity," who treat the U.S. Constitution as optional.
And the prez seems to have a very selective memory! Time and again he has met with and appeared in public with world leaders who, as a matter of principle, deny their people basic human rights. The Think Progress site has photos of Bush with the Saudi Arabian strongman, King Abdullah, the Pakistani dictator, Musharraf, the Russian premier, Vladimir Putin, and Uzbekistan's dictator, Islam Karimov.
Bush has also met with and appeared publicly with the dictator of Communist China! (See photo)
Meanwhile, the whole world is laughing at the "leader of the free world." Again!
1 comment:
Thank God though that he is intent upon bringing democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Personally I would appreciate more backing for our form of democracy, here in the USA.
Perhaps he can make a speech in which he shows the freedom of the press here; the wonders of our checks and balances; the importance of having three equal branches of government so that each are answerable to the people; the wonders of a free press that can ask questions, get and publish answers; etc.; freedom of and from religion by keeping church and state separate.
We enjoyed such things for a very long time until Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gingrich, Murdoch and allowing Bin laden off the hook while invading Iraq for a variety of conflicting reasons.
Bob Poris
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