Pacific Free Press was launched in March 2007 by Dutch-Canadian Richard
Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands along with Chris Cook- CFUV radio journalist and Editor in Chief of Pacific Free Press. Cook is based in , Victoria, British Columbia.
The mission of Pacific Free Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from
the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried
public discourse today. Pacific Free Press provides a new venue for
disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the
harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.
Bush Bombs at the United Nations
by Larry C. Johnson Certainly not an earth shattering headline, but disturbing nonetheless. The lack of love between George Bush and the United Nations is an old “dog-bites-man” story. Having put haters like John Bolton at the helm of the U.S. delegation, Bush’s in your face “go fuck yourself” hostility to all things UN is no secret.
But today’s performance in New York set a new low even for the Bush Administration.
Except for tepid applause when Bush was introduced and when he left the podium, no one clapped. Not even our allies. The world has caught on to the George Bush propaganda game and declines to show him a modicum of respect.
Bush’s efforts to wrap himself in the aura of AIDS prevention,
feeding hungry children, rescuing refugees in Darfur, and restoring
freedom in Myanmar fell flat. There was a time when the United States
could stand proudly before countries like Cuba, Myanmar, Sudan, and
Iran and lecture them on human rights and democracy.
But in the wake of
Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, secret renditions and kidnappings of innocent
Arab men, flaunting the UN Declarations on Human Rights, the creation
of a million plus refugees in Iraq (and the deaths of hundreds of
thousands), and the suspension of habeus corpus America has pissed away
its credibility.
America’s moral
authority is gone. Our credibility in talking about foreign threats and
the need to respect human rights is zippo. What is truly appalling
about this development is that we have aligned ourselves in practice
with those very regimes we so vigorously condemn.
In the past,
authoritarian regimes like the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, would
justify their right to detain people without worrying about due process
because they defined those individuals as terrorists who threatened the
state and the security of their people.
From their standpoint, all was
fair when it came to protecting the nation. Security of the people was
paramount, and human rights and civil liberties be damned in the face
of perceived threats.
The Bush Administration, many in the U.S.
Congress, and many Americans have willingly embraced the mindset and
tactics of authoritarians and dictators. Hell, a large number celebrate
the ability of a mythical TV character–Jack Bauer–to torture “enemies”
in order to save the country.
All is fair in love and war. But those
are not the ideals that undergirded the American ideal in the wake of
World War II.
So the world sat largely silently listening to a
crazed little man rant about the abuses in the rest of the world. But
his condemnation of the war in Sudan and the creation of refugees in
Darfur could not blot out the reality of his war in Iraq and the
millions who have fled that hell hole.
Bush declared: "Every
civilized nation also has a responsibility to stand up for the people
suffering under dictatorship,” the president said. “In Belarus, North
Korea, Syria and Iran, brutal regimes deny their people the fundamental
rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration” of the United Nations."
This
was chutzpah. Just before Bush began speaking a series of car bombs
swept Iraq killing and wounding hundreds. A country the United States
has occupied for more than four years continues to be ravaged by
violence. The Iraqi people themselves are denied the rights Bush
extolled. Hell, the United States even protects mercenary armies–like
Blackwater–who operate outside of any law and kill innocent civilians
without any consequence.
The rest of the world sees and
understands our hypocrisy. Unfortunately, many Americans share the
ignorance and vacuity of George Bush and do not realize how foolish and
stupid we look on the world stage. Today’s performance by George Bush
does nothing to win friends or influence enemies.
It simply reinforces
the notion that the United States is in the grips of a President who
has fulfilled the prophecy of H.L. Mencken:
” . . . all the odds
are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre —
the man who can most easily (and) adeptly disperse the notion that
his mind is a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year by year, to go
to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more
closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On
some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach
their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a
downright moron.”
Writings 
Certainly not an earth shattering headline, but disturbing nonetheless. The lack of love between George Bush and the United Nations is an old “dog-bites-man” story. Having put haters like John Bolton at the helm of the U.S. delegation, Bush’s in your face “go fuck yourself” hostility to all things UN is no secret. 
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