Jun 16 2007
Bush to Putin: Hey, Vlad. Straighten Up
By Steven Jonas
6/12/07
Originally published at Buzzflash
It was a rebuke that was little noticed, nor will it be long remembered. But last week George W. (I call the Pope “Sir”) Bush had some interesting things to say to Russian President Vladimir (in the past Bush has called him “Vlad”) Putin (June 6, The New York Times, “Chastising Putin, Bush Says Russia Derails Reform,” S. G. Stolberg).
Among other things, Bush told Vlad that: “In Russia, reforms that were once promised to empower citizens have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development. . . . The most powerful weapon in the struggle against extremism is not bullets or bombs - it is the universal appeal of freedom. . . . Freedom is the design of our maker, and the longing of every soul. . . Freedom is the best way to unleash the creativity and economic potential of a nation. Freedom is the only ordering of a society that leads to justice. And human freedom is the only way to achieve human rights.”
Wow. What a statement. What a ringing endorsement of the whole concept of human freedom, of inalienable rights, of the striving of each and every human being for freedom. Why he even relates freedom to “our maker” (by which George, and since he calls Vlad “Vlad” I guess it’s alright to call him “George,” presumably means the “God” to which he has referred so many times in so many speeches). And by “ordering of a society,” one could be so bold as to infer that he is referring to the Rule of Law and Constitutional Democracy. By golly.
Now it’s one thing to talk about Democracy and Freedom in general terms. It’s quite another to talk in specifics, to give one example after another. And just think about all of the examples of his “democratic” policies in his own country to which George could refer Vlad. For example, here’s an even dozen:
1. George’s reference to our Constitution as nothing but a “scrap of paper.”
2. George’s consistent overriding on his own authority of the terms of our Constitution, from the scrapping of the “quaint” Geneva Conventions, which by its terms are part of it, to his recent Executive Orders Nos. NSPD 51 and HSPD-20 in which he gave himself the power to take full control of all powers of the Federal government in response to any “national emergency” that he might declare as a national emergency.
3. The repeal by statute of the Constitutionally established right to habeas corpus, passed in the last Congress by his rubber-stamp Republican majority.
4. His use of and continued defense of warrantless surveillance of anyone he says he wants to surveil, in violation of the terms of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
5. His apparent use of cheating to win election in both 2000 and 2004, but his certain use of threatened violence against the Dade County, FL Board of Elections when in December 2000, it attempted to start its own vote recount, one that was never made.
6. His concealing of every piece of information about what his government is doing from both the general public and the Congress, whenever he possibly can.
7. His attempts to disenfranchise up to millions of African-American voters, if he possibly could.
8. His use of his Department of “Justice” for party political purposes.
9. His establishment of a Privatized Ministry of Propaganda.
10. His consistent and ongoing violations of the terms of the Fourth (on search and seizure and reasonable cause), Fifth (on due process), and Sixth (right to a speedy criminal trail) Amendments to the Constitution, again on his own authority, in dealing with any persons he, on his own authority, has labeled as “terrorists.”
11. His endorsement of one particular concept of “God” to justify the criminalization of belief held by persons who have another concept of “God,” when it comes to, say, “when life begins.”
12. His obviously very firm belief that indeed “democracy,” whatever he really thinks it is, can be brought to Iraq and its people precisely by bullets and bombs.
Boy, what a civics lesson he could teach dear old Vlad. And what a political lesson he could teach the Democrats, too. If they would only listen.
Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY), a weekly contributing author for The Political Junkies, and contributing editor for The Moving Planet Blog.