Democracy Hypocrisy: Strike a Pose
Democracy Hypocrisy: Strike a Pose
Apparently, in the Bush administration, a policy of “democracy promotion” includes having top officials pose in “Hollywood Walk of Fame”-style photo shoots with dictatorial thugs.
There, on the far left, is our energy secretary, Samuel Bodman, all smiles. Next to him stands the murderous Uzbek tyrant Islam Karimov, who just two weeks ago ordered Tiananmen-style massacres of hundreds of his own citizens, and has since refused to even allow an international investigation of the matter. We’d offer our view on Karimov, but the conservative Economist magazine sums it up well:
Even on the most self-interested calculus, the reality is that Mr Karimov is an ally the West is better off without. His help in the war against terror is outweighed by the encouragement he has given to radicals of every stripe in Central Asia and beyond, and by the damage that association with him does to the West’s reputation. … Nor is Uzbekistan of real strategic importance any more. With bases in Kirgizstan and Afghanistan, America hardly needs Khanabad, the base for which it pays Mr Karimov handsomely. He should now be made a pariah, his regime stripped of all forms of aid, and all military assistance withdrawn.
Posing with them is Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev. Just a few days prior to this photo, which was taken last Wednesday, “Azerbaijani police beat pro-democracy demonstrators with truncheons when opposition parties, yelling ‘free elections,’ defied the government’s ban on protests against [Aliyev].”
So why is everyone so happy? They’re celebrating the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, a project certain to enrich and strengthen these repressive regimes. At the ceremony, Bodman read a letter from President Bush lauding the “visionary leadership” of President Aliyev, and offering “congratulations to the people of Azerbaijan” for the pipeline, since they’ll surely see so much of the profits. Uh-huh.
In at least one way, though, this photo is useful. Just print it out and keep it in your wallet, so the next time someone asks why pro-democracy activists around the world no longer see us as a beacon of hope, you can whip it out and save your breath.
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Dear Nico, before writing this article you should have done your homework so that you would not confuse Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev (standing by Mr. Bodman) with Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov (who is not at the ceremony at all since he has nothing to do with the opening the oil pipeline). Please next time make sure you do not disinform the readers of the “thinkprogress.com”. Thank you.
May 29th, 2005 at 10:48 pm“The Economist” is conservative? Really?
From the wikipedia:
The newspaper:
* Supports gay marriage [5] (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2459758)
May 29th, 2005 at 11:10 pm* Supports legal prostitution [6] (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3151258)
* Supports decriminalising drugs such as marijuana
* Supports reducing agricultural subsidies in developed nations
* Supports turning Britain into a republic. (October 1994)
* Supports the 2003 war in Iraq
* Supports stronger gun control laws in the United States [7] (http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm/none/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=1936029)
* Supports Turkey’s membership in the European Union
* Supports space exploration by private organisations such as Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne, instead of by NASA or the ESA
* Supports regulation by governments where an efficient market cannot or does not exist (e.g. environmental or social)
* Supports charitable donations by private individuals and governments but condemns most financial charity by companies as “borrowed virtue” (e.g. they support the fact that Bill Gates, not Microsoft, is the world’s most charitable non-governmental body)
The Economist is conservative, more so than Buckshot’s ridiculous claim that Slate is a liberal, web based publication. I suggest a visit to …
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
…EvilCornbread, because judging by your name, I’d bet you are an American. some of the most critical pieces I’ve read about this administration have been in the Christian Science Monitor. You wouldn’t call them liberal, necessarily, would you? Some people just do good journalism.
May 30th, 2005 at 5:38 amI’m not sure what you’re saying — I read The Economist regularly, consider myself a liberal, and agree with it more often that not. Just reading through its policy list above makes me think that it’s a free-thinking but left-leaning magazine, which largely jives with what I’ve perceived while reading it.
As far as politicalcompass goes, what a terrible site! The test includes wildly biased (largely left-leaning) questions, is confusing (too many double-negatives), and doesn’t include a middle-ground option.
May 30th, 2005 at 12:50 pmRegardless, the points about Karimov are entirely accurate, as is the slurping noises Bush admin. flacks make whenever he draws near.
May 30th, 2005 at 1:19 pmDON’T FORGET
Please sign Representative John Conyers letter to George Bush demanding answers for the Downing Street memo!!!! More than 1600 young Americans are dead because of George Bush’s lies!!!! It is past time to hold him accountable!!!!
http://www.johnconyers.campaignoffice.com/index.asp?Type=SUPERFORMS&SEC=%7B0F1B0 3E0-080B-4100-B143-36A5985EF1E3%7D
This is your chance to make a difference!!!!!
May 30th, 2005 at 1:37 pmUzbekistan is only one obvious data point that illustrates “The Myth of the Bush Doctrine”.
May 30th, 2005 at 1:41 pmOnly an american would make those comments Cornbread. I doubt you looked into the site too deeply. Try reading the FAQ, or I suppose you prefer “the old one-dimensional categories of ‘right’ and ‘left’ , established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today’s complex political landscape.” If that is too simplistic, for you, but the Political Compass site “is terrible”, you might be one of those new age conservatives. Try wrapping your mind around this:
http://www.integralworld.net/wilpert0.html
Or send Political Compass some of your suggestions and criticisms. They likely have heard them all before, but if any of yours are novel and have merit they may incorporate them.
May 30th, 2005 at 2:12 pmThis is a terrible piece of idiocy:
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html
The political compass site is a vast improvement.
If you can do better, Cornbread, you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams.
May 30th, 2005 at 2:22 pmI read the piece at Wiki. I see what you are saying. It is Market Liberal. It has backed conservatives such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. I think we could call it a conservative publication here. They consider themselves extreme centrists.
May 30th, 2005 at 2:29 pmSort of off topic, unless the topic is our government’s hypocrisy, then I’ve got another dose of hypocrisy for you:
Clark Stooksbury is a freelance writer who has published in The American Conservative, Chronicles and Liberty; among other publications.
May 30th, 2005 at 3:14 pmThat poor guy’s website had so many hits he exceeded his bandwith. Try the Clark Stooksbury link.
May 30th, 2005 at 8:51 pm..and the Glaivester link above, notice they are both right wing libertarians, paleo-conservatives, what have you, slamming DeLay and this administration. I love to see that.
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December 10, 2005
Bush’s secret backyard fence is crumbling as the international Red Cross demanding to visit detainees in “undisclosed locations.†International Red Cross President Jakob Kellenberger has been pushing the U.S. for access to all detainees. Although the Red Cross had visit detainees in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq access to secret U.S. detainees in Europe were denied. The excuse is that U.S. has the authority to say no, stating that members of al-Qaeda are not cover by the Geneva Convention. All this begs the question: Has the overall revelation of detainee abuse convince the U.S. that rendering the Geneva Conventions “quaint” is the source of our government’s discontent in its widespread abuse at U.S. prisons? The answer is yes. Although the Geneva Conventions, signed and ratified by the United States to protect those involved in international armed conflicts a January 2002 memorandum issued by the Bush administration claims the war on terrorism renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of al Qaeda detainees, exempting them from the Geneva Conventions’ provisions on the legal treatment of prisoners. Thus opened the door for widespread abuse of detainees which Bush would rather have it shut.
December 11th, 2005 at 2:39 amCondi’s Comfort
December 9, 2005
The Bush administration’s addiction to torture on this holiday season may end and the “cold turkey†shakes begins. In “British court rejects evidence obtained through torture†by the Press Democrat News Services spelled that Britain’s highest court have ruled that evidences obtained through torture in other countries cannot be used in the British courts. British Law Lords question the detention of a group of foreigners whose rights to hear the evidences against them were never told. The Law Lords found this unacceptable; especially those abuses involved which are popular in Guantanamo Bay. Meanwhile, in Belgium, Condoleezza Rice objected, stating that the U.S. can’t guarantee that detainees won’t be abused. Aside from offering assurances that violators of the detainees will be punished Rice’s plead is as empty as President Bush’s denial that he had no knowledge that extraordinary retention involved torture. Bad as Bush’s denials are what’s worse are Rice’s reassurances that everything is going to be okay. At this moment that okay offers little comfort for someone who is being torture in some spider hole in Russia, courtesy of the U.S. of A.
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