Bush a hypocrite to lecture Putin :Andrew Greeley

http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel041.html
Bush a hypocrite to lecture Putin

March 4, 2005

Andrew Greeley

Suppose that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Canada and announced that the United States was retreating from its principles of freedom since the World Trade Center attack. The United States, he might have said, has denied due process of law to some American citizens. It has established a concentration camp in Cuba. It has tortured prisoners, indeed often and in many places. It denies aliens the right to trial by jury -- indeed, it acts like the only ones who have Mr. Jefferson's inalienable rights are American citizens, and not always.


It is not my intention to say that Russia is more democratic than the United States. Patently it is not. Nor do I propose to argue that American democracy is far from perfect. Patently it is far from perfect. Rather, I am suggesting that for President Bush to come to the edge of Russia (Slovakia) and preach about democracy to Putin is rude, crude and undiplomatic. It is an insult to Putin and to Russia and to the Russian people. It is also hypocrisy.



Did Bush lecture the Germans and the French about their treatment of Muslims? Did he lecture the English about their continued failures in Northern Ireland? Hardly. He understood--or the people around him did--that it was inappropriate for him to intervene in the domestic problems of other countries. What made him think it was appropriate to lecture Russia like it was a spoiled and obstreperous schoolchild about its failings?

Did he expect Putin to accept his insult and promise to do better? Did he think that the Russian people would say that it was time for the Russian leadership to shape up in response to the criticism of an American president? What good would come of his criticism? Why did he bother to make such a big deal out of it?

I can't believe some of the stuff Bush does. He is so arrogant.

Our own civil rights issues need to really be looked at, our own backward slide away from democracy.