MAKING the WORLD SAFE for HYPOCRISY
President Bush has been highly vocal in his promotion of liberty for all the oppressed people in the world. For example, in his inaugural address he said:
We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.
Thus it is disconcerting to hear Mr. Bush event after event overriding his lofty pronouncements. For example:
- In responding to Amnesty International's scathing indictment of America's treatment of suspected imprisoned terrorists, he cavalierly dismisses the whole carefully documented report as "absurd".
This wholesale dismissal of the work of a respected body of objective evaluators - the same group who President Bush used in large measure to justify our declaring war on Iraq - clearly shows President Bush to be inconsistent at best and an opportunist at worst. When the mirror reflects an agreeable image the President gives it high marks; when the same mirror reflects an unflattering image, the President disparages the 'bad' messenger. So much for liberty, the right to dissent, and respect for alternative points of view.
The President also stated in his inaugural address:
We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people.
America 's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty.
In this context:
- The President's disrespectful dismissiveness of those Senators who have serious doubts about the wisdom of appointing Mr. Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations as only a stalling tactic motivated by the lowest of 'political' motives is another clear instance of the President reducing a complex issue to the most shallow and simplistic 'political' and shamelessly partisan interpretation.
The President can not have it both ways. Either he represents all the people and is consistent in remaining objective or he is nothing more than a pretender playing the role of a wise and prudent leader who is in fact, nothing more than a partisan 'politician' who cares more for preserving his and his cronies power rather than promoting the lofty ideals of liberty and justice for all.
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