by John Bottoms

In its continuing quest to further lower the bar on government hypocrisy, the Dubya administration is insisting that once and again Venezuelan President Chavez embrace democracy.  This from a US president whose only clear electoral majority was in the Supreme Court, and whose administration applauded, most likely aided, and possibly orchestrated the failed military coup against democratically elected Chavez.  The crime of the Chavez administration, and the reason that Bush wants him out is that Venezuela's government-owned oil company won't sell oil to the US at sufficiently favorable terms. 

In fact, the Bush administration wouldn't know democracy if it flew up its collective nose, as they fight a voter-approved assisted suicide law in Oregon, threaten doctors who prescribe voter-approved medical marijuana in numerous western states, and spy on the correspondence of thousands of Americans.  When spoken by an American politician, "democracy" has come to mean whatever favors his interests of the moment, so in Dubya's case, it would involve oil and war.  That's not to say that democracy, colloquially defined as two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner, is any great shakes either.  But “democracy” is on the way out anyway, because just as it replaced “freedom” as America’s political operating principle during the 20th century, “security” is becoming the watchword of our new century. 

Bush talked about how important it is "for President Chavez to . . . address the reasons why there was so much turmoil on the streets."  Right on, Dubya!  With 100,000 people marching on Washington protesting Israel's war against the Palestinians, and lots of other anti-war and anti-IMF demonstrations planned for this Patriot's Day weekend, maybe he really should address turmoil caused by billions of US taxpayer dollars going to fund Israeli war crimes, his plan to fight multi-front wars, and the unraveling of the US government's reputation around the world. 

Bush shows such an ability to admonish his enemies for his own sins that one wonders if there's some kind of Freudian slippage going on up there.  He infamously refers to Iraq, Iran and North Korea, which have been conspicuously war-free for more than a decade, as an "axis of evil" while a true US/Israeli axis has been killing people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Serbia, Panama, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Philippines, Colombia, Nicaragua, Palestine, Lebanon, and China (if you include their embassy in Belgrade).  He cynically sent Colin Powell to the Middle East to quiet things down a bit between the Israelis and Palestinians . . . so he can kill even more people in Iraq. 

And speaking of Iraq, Bush's rationale for war is that they have weapons of mass destruction, they may have secretly held a US pilot POW since the Gulf War, and they gassed their own people during their war with Iran.  Never mind that the US refuses international inspectors access to its weapons facilities while insisting that Iraq comply, that they claim the right to hold POWs from the Afghan war forever without criminal charges or access to counsel, and they know there's no concrete evidence that Iraqi Kurds were gassed by Baghdad.  

I could go on, but there’s really not much challenge in documenting this administration’s hypocrisy.  Just open the front page of any newspaper or internet news site.