AmerCon : Linguistics : U.S. Narrative : Doesn't Mesh

Washington Post
2005.01.21

Bush's Words On Liberty Don't Mesh With Policies
U.S. Maintains Close Ties With Repressive Nations

By Glenn Kessler and Robin Wright

President Bush's soaring rhetoric yesterday that the United States will promote the growth
of democratic movements and institutions worldwide is at odds with the administration's
increasingly close relations with repressive governments in every corner of the world.

Some of the administration's allies in the war against terrorism -- including Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan -- are ranked by the State Department as among the
worst human rights abusers. The president has proudly proclaimed his friendship with
Russian President Vladimir Putin while remaining largely silent about Putin's dismantling of
democratic institutions in the past four years. The administration, eager to enlist China as
an ally in the effort to restrain North Korea's nuclear ambitions, has played down human
rights concerns there, as well.

Bush's speech "brought to a high level the gap between the rhetoric and reality
in U.S. foreign policy," said Thomas Carothers, co-author of a new book,
"Uncharted Journey: Promoting Democracy in the Middle East."

"The rhetoric is seamless, but the policy is very muddled. In fact, the war on
terrorism has pushed the U.S. to be friendlier with nondemocratic regimes," said
Carothers, director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace.

Administration officials say Bush's goals are a "generational challenge" and should not be
judged by the results of one or even two terms. In the speech yesterday, Bush said that
"success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people." But often in
the first term, Bush's objectives on democracy were set aside for more pressing and
immediate concerns, such as need for cooperation in the war on terrorism.

Autocratic rulers in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, moreover, would be likely to be replaced by
opponents of U.S. policy if free and fair elections were held there today.

Since shortly before the invasion of Iraq, the president has advocated democracy in the
Middle East in a series of bold statements and speeches. But the follow-up has often fallen
short. In a speech before the National Endowment for Democracy on Nov. 6, 2003, Bush
pointed to Egypt, ruled for almost a quarter of a century by President Hosni Mubarak, and
declared that the Arab country "should show the way toward democracy in the Middle East."

But Mubarak, who appears likely to run for president this year in yet another tightly
controlled election, has sidestepped possible U.S. pressure to reform by providing key
assistance in bids to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To this day, the government of
Egypt retains veto power over which nongovernmental groups can receive any of the
nearly $2 billion in annual U.S. aid.

Egypt has helped the war on terrorism in less savory ways. Bush expressed support
yesterday for "democratic reformers facing repression, prison or exile." But in late 2001,
U.S. authorities forcibly transferred an Australian citizen to Egypt, where, he alleges, he
was tortured for six months before being flown to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.

Human rights experts said Bush's commitment to freedom is undercut by such actions, as
well as the administration's treatment of detainees and terrorist suspects at Guantanamo,
the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, was struck by the fact
that Bush mentioned "liberty" repeatedly but did not use the phrase "human
rights" as an overriding goal.

"The decision to speak in terms of liberty instead of human rights was
deliberate," Roth said. "Liberty is an abstract concept, but human rights bind
everyone, including the Bush administration. It's easy to say I'm for liberty but
difficult to say I'm for human rights when he's overseeing what we know is a
conscious policy of coercive interrogation, including inhuman treatment and
sometimes torture."

During her confirmation hearings this week, Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza
Rice also stressed that she would focus on spreading democracy and freedom around the
globe. Several senators questioned her on the inconsistency of the administration's
approach, notably Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.). He challenged her to explain why the
administration looks the other way when it comes to countries with near-dictatorships, such
as Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, while heaping scorn on
nations with some level of elections, such as Venezuela and Iran.

"Some of this is a matter of trend lines and where countries have been and where they are
now going," Rice replied. Countries are "going to move at different speeds on this
democracy test. I don't think there is any doubt about that. But what we have to do is that
we have to keep this item on the agenda."

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup, reneged last
month on a promise to give up his title as army chief of staff, eliciting little protest from the
administration. At her hearings, Rice said she felt that Pakistan has "come a long way" in
recent years because Musharraf broke ties with the Taliban, which had ruled Afghanistan,
and assisted in fighting al Qaeda.

The State Department, in its annual human rights report, has cited Uzbekistan for its "very
poor" human rights record, including the torture and killing of citizens in custody for political
reasons. There is virtually no freedom of speech or of the press.

Yet Bush met with Uzbekistan's president in 2002 and signed a declaration of "strategic
partnership," and senior officials such as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have visited the country. The United States "values
Uzbekistan as a stable, moderate force in a turbulent region," the State Department said
late last year.

Jennifer L. Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, said Bush's goals are laudable,
but "my sense from the first four years is that you didn't see that consistency of message in
all parts of the administration."

She noted that the administration signed free-trade deals with Morocco and Bahrain,
which, after some promising steps toward political reforms, have begun to crack down on
human rights groups.

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