Guardian UK: Paying lip service to multilateralism

[marmar]

Paying lip service to multilateralism
George Bush's emphasis on international cooperation in his final UN speech is totally disconnected from his actions as president

Ian Williams
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday September 23 2008 21:30 BST



George Bush's parting speech to the UN on Tuesday was a bit like a rapist deciding to whisper sweet nothings as he climbs up off his victim. Sadly, most of his victims sat sycophantically and applauded, even if they muttered behind their name placards.

Last year, Bush's UN speech script went to the press with all his phonetic spellings put in, lest he insult dear friends and allies by mispronouncing their names. For his curtain call at the world body, for someone used to autocues, he intoned a competent if uninspiring sermon to the assembled world leaders. And avoided tricky names.

Luckily, the world had low expectations of his first visit eight years ago, so it could keep its disappointment within limits when he lowered the bar. Since then Bush has started several wars, threatened several more and brought the global economy to the precipice, while leaving his ungrateful nation several trillion dollars in extra debts from the Iraq war and bailouts to financial institutions – not a mention a few extra billion to the guys who owned and ran those institutions. It was not the best of backdrops for a farewell performance.

Most of the sentiments in his speech would have been unexceptional, and the congregation would have nodded in agreement and off to doze, were it not for the total disconnect between the sentiments expressed and the behaviour of the preacher.

He preached: "As sovereign states, we have an obligation to govern responsibly and solve problems before they spill across borders. We have an obligation to prevent our territory from being used as a sanctuary for terrorism and proliferation and human trafficking and organised crime."

All true, but it would ring more so if did not come from the lips of someone whose government was "trafficking" humans in rendition flights across the globe, or even one who had not allowed bank lobbyists to craft the financial regime that now threatens to crash the global economy. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/sep/23/george.bush.united.nations

[Duke Newcombe]

1. "Paying lip service"...so many ways to go wrong with that...

Just suffice it to say that I don't think that say, he or Palin could even understand what "multilateralism" is without a dictionary or thesaurus. Oh, wait...are those banned yet? :sarcasm:

Duke