Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
America in the World: Silenced by Bush
"The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity."
--André Gide
One of the legacies of Bush's tragically flawed foreign policy is that it has managed to silence Americans who believe that the United States -- for all its faults -- should condemn aggression in other parts of the world.
If one word describes how Bush has dealt with the rest of our small planet, it is hypocrisy. For the past eight years, the administration's deeds have seldom, if ever, matched its rhetoric. Operation Iraqi Freedom, it now seems clearer than ever, was in fact Operation Iraqi Oil. While the State Department issues human rights reports, the Bush/Cheney regime supports dictators who suppress the innocent. And in Eastern Europe, which the administration proclaims should be a region of peace and stability, it is heightening tensions by installing missile systems against "the Iranian threat."
To prevail in its so-called "war on terror" the White House has allowed the use of inhumane methods -- among them torture -- that go against basic American principles. In a crusade against those it labels as "terrorists" the administration established a detainee camp -- Guantanamo -- that violates fundamental justice.
"No question," said Mr. Bush in June 2006, "Guantanamo sends a signal to some of our friends -- provides an excuse, for example, to say the United States is not upholding the values that they're trying to encourage other countries to adhere to. And my answer to them is, is that we are a nation of laws and rule of law."
Such Bushian doublespeak, expressed with total "sincerity," has regrettably defined America's relationship with our fellow human beings in this new century. As a result, even US critics of the administration's policies are reluctant to condemn aggression by other countries because they do not want to be accused of what the Bush regime, worldwide, will perhaps be most remembered for -- hypocrisy.
The "who-are-we-to-say" syndrome is most evident recently in how American commentators are reacting to the conflict between Russia and Georgia. Pundits -- be they sympathizers of one or the other country -- dare not raise their voices against the aggression undertaken by the side they support. After all, if the U.S. invaded Iraq under false pretenses, how can similar behavior by foreign leaders be condemned by Americans?
For nearly a decade now, the US example in foreign affairs has been to hit first and (if ever) talk later. This has been Bush's "message" to the world, despite the administration's risible efforts to sugarcoat his aggressive, unilateral actions through "public diplomacy" -- far too much of which, under the current regime, has been reduced to the crudest type of propaganda.
Given the record of Bush's tenure in office, Americans, who elected him twice, are now lacking the moral confidence to say "no" to aggression overseas, for fear of appearing hypocritical to the rest of the world (and to themselves as well).
"Hypocrisy," La Rochefoucauld wittily wrote, "is the homage vice pays to virtue." That may be true, in certain social situations. But as regards the US reaction to events abroad, Bush's hypocrisy has led Americans to believe we have little choice but to pay homage only to silence.
For America to again have a credible voice in the world today, we need a new foreign policy based not on Bushian hypocrisy but on the words of the Declaration of Independence: "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind" and "Facts ... submitted to a candid world."
- Posted in
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
16 Comments so far
Show All"For America to again have a credible voice in the world today, we need a new foreign policy..."
America just needs A foreign policy. As George Monbiot put it, in his article reproduced in Common Dreams last Tuesday:
"The US does not really have a foreign policy. It has a series of domestic policies which it projects beyond its borders. That they threaten the world with 57 varieties of destruction is of no concern to the current administration. The only question of interest is who gets paid and what the political kickbacks will be."
Secretarybird
It's naive and small-minded to think that the US foreign policy problems started with the Bush Administration. The problems started when the US Government decided to be an empire rather than a republic.
No mention of that Oil Carrying Pipe line that is financed by Israel who
was hoping to control the oil and sell it to China. Is this why Sen Joe Lieberman
has flown to Georgia of the pipe line?
having traveled in Europe and other parts of the world I can tell you that the world can't take Bush without laughing their heads off. They think he is the biggest joke the world has produced. The number who think 911 was an inside job is even higher than in the US. They also don't understand how the people of America are sitting on their hands with tape across their mouths.
A classic example is what has happened in the last week. The whole US media lock stepped and jumped on Russia. You don't need to change your foreign policy you need to change America at home first.
We're a joke. That's why Bush is President. No one is educated in political processes, our media is controlled by the same folks in bed with the politicians and the only thing American's care about is if there's a twinkee to eat and if their cell phone can text. I live in the deep South- you should see what votes here. It is comical and I am an American. Fat, uneducated, drunk and like it that way. The corporate elites know this and keep everybody happy offering the next new food, flat screen TV or cell phone contraption to consume. These stupid SUV driving, fat, stupid Americans will only wake up when the food runs out- then the shot guns come out and the elites will have their protective (well-fed) police force protecting them. They always win. Americans are just too comfortable right now- the economy is starting to change some of that though.
Incredibly, the awesome power of corporate PR would give us another Bush.
And what about the Democrats who joined the rubberstamp GOP by caving in and betraying us voters. Bush could easily have been stopped but the Democrats never bothered putting their efforts where it counted. America has been FUCKED by both parties.
VOTENADER.ORG !!
Ah, but you are forgetting that some are so ignorant of our History -specifically, of how the Government might fuction outside of the "Bipartisan Consensus" game of the last 35 years- that they have no concept of the failure of the Democratic Party in the Congress.
It is not just the last two years -while in narrow majority- that they have screwed up (or screwed us).
If we honestly compare the Dems to genuine "left" or "liberal" or even "left liberal" (as so many STILL delude themselves the Dems are) parties in other States, we find problems also in the majority years from at least '70 through '94 AND the failure to win back control in '96 through '04.
As the "Two Major" political Parties become ever more irrelevant to the People, and ever more beholden to the Inhuman Corporate Oligarchs, will they finally wither and die?
Or will a majority of the People continue to treat their basic Rights as Citizens of a Republic like just another Consumer Choice?
Perhaps its the difference between a recession and gradual recovery and a depression and uncertain recovery. In a recession, I can see people staying at home and watching more Cable TV News "Programming", whereas in a depression, I can see things getting tough enough folks sell their TV and finally realize what it was doing to them.
Who knows?
Have Fun,
-matti.
O hypocritical, for spacious skies,
For blood-soaked waves of gain!
For purple prose's majesty
Above the millions slain!
Amerika! Amerika!
God shed his plague on thee,
And crowned thy arrogance
With Bush's curse,
From sea to polluted sea!
iamherenowhat has it right,,,,,
But this time around "the 'To Protect and Serve' their masters" are waking up too. I would love to see the day (which we may never see), when a Police Lt. goes up to his boss, and says "you are under arrest" for violation of citizens' rights under the Constitution.
Coffeelover,,,,,,,
klever
klever
Brown sez: "After all, if the U.S. invaded Iraq under false pretenses, how can similar behavior by foreign leaders be condemned by Americans?"
***
Like this:
"In the 21st Century, nations don't invade other nations."
—John "W" McCain
Bring America Back !!!!
**Well, Sir John Brown====what a diplomatic fellow you are, I find
hipocrisy to be a bland mamby pamby word to describe what King George
and Company have pulled off here in the US of A , and in the world !
**In the world of Foreign Service Officers I guess they train you guys
to be milque toasty so you don't commit any foreign political blunders !
**Having comitted major war crimes, crimes against the American people,
and the Constitutional Democracy==the entire past year is being used by
King George and co-conspirators to cover-up their trails and tracks so
they can't be dragged into court after they lose their governing powers.
**Witness the FISA immunity laws just passed; witness the feeble anthrax
patsies they are parading; the refusal of documents relating to convicted
Jack Abramoff's visits and business at the White House; the refusal to allow
testimony relating to US Attorney appointments; **the rats are covering up
their tracks right under our noses. Notice how the Bush Neocons always use
the Congressional vacations and recesses to bring out these covers, so they
face minimal opposition and controversy from the legislative branch. That's
how John Bolton got his Ambasadorship to the UN--he was a recess appointment
during a Congressional absense, or he never would've made it thru the
appointment and consent process.
**You may call it hipocrisy, but I call it absolute power corrupting
absloutely. Oh, and let's all donate to King Georges Presidential Library !
freespirit: I used to be proud of America. And I believed my rights would never be eclipsed. Instead I feel ashamed of America due to our negligence in voting in corrupt leaders like the Bush's, Reagan, and Clinton. Not since Carter have I been proud of our President. Too many folks sold their souls to the money God during the past 40 years and the bought and sold for media captured the public with tales of riches and power and so many fell for grabing the loot. A government will always be in danger of theft and corruption if the majority don't mind the vote and inform themselves of their chosen leaders.