Bush's Latin America Tour

[TheUnbroken]

On my way into work this morning I overheard an excerpt of a Bush speech in Colombia and it reminded me of why American foreign policy so often fails to bring about any meaningful change in the world. Here is the link to the CNN story: Compassionate America

The most pertinent part is where Bush says "It's very important for the people of South America and Central America to know that the United States cares deeply about the human condition, and that much of our aid is aimed at helping people realize their God-given potential". This is as close as Bush will get to making a direct response to Venezuela's Chavez who is having his own counter-tour to highlight America's lack of compassion for the poor and needy. In choosing to respond this way Bush has already lost the debate for us. He has allowed Chavez to set the premise that it is America's responsibility to guide Latin America to a proserous path when he chose to defend America based on Chavez's allegations. It's yet another example of American's biggest foreign policy failure. The failure to stand up for a moral premise and say to the world, not that America has compassion, but that it is not America's responsibility to have compassion for other countries. By choosing a 'middle' path we tie ourselves into knots by creating a contradiction whereby we say that we are compassionate and yet we also remind the world that we are not its policeman. Men like Chavez spend their whole lives playing the sort of game that profits on a country that so willingly handicaps itself by this sort of moral abdication.

What does everyone else think? What should bush have said? Should he have been there in the first place?

Edited March 12, 2007 by TheUnbroken

[Inspector]

You pretty much hit the nail on the head.

[KendallJ]

Bush is presenting his version of Chavez socialism, that being "compassionate conservatism". This will not defend against Chavez. It is capitulation, and a race to see who can "care" about the people more.

[Galileo Blogs]

I agree with you, TheUnbroken. Bush is being consistent, though. As Kendall said, he is a "compassionate conservative." He accepts essentially all of Chavez's stated premises about helping the poor, except that Bush waters it down with insincere, hypocritical and half-hearted support of capitalist principles. People see through that, and it makes Bush look like a hypocrite. So, when Bush says he will give $X dollars of aid for the poor in this or that backwater country, the intellectuals correctly see it as throwing trifles at the poor.

What is sad about the whole thing is that Bush, if he had different principles, could have overthrown Chavez with minimal effort. In fact, Chavez was overthrown several years ago. The Venezuelan democrats who overthrew him asked for a moral stamp of approval from the United States, but the United States turned its back on them, thereby easing the way for Chavez to re-assert power. In the meantime, the United States has done nothing, in words or deed, to express its outrage as Chavez nationalizes industries and tyrannizes the Venezuelan people, Cuban style.

The Bush presidency is a case study on the need for correct moral principles. Sadly, Bush has been consistent with adherence to his principles, as consistent as a Christian conservative can be. Because Christianity is not a morality for living on this earth, the result is a dissatisfying hypocrisy that appears cynical. Whether he is cynical or not, his actions appear that way. (The little I know of Bush's advisor Karl Rove, I would say that he is a cynical, hypocritical man.)

As for all those (not on this forum!) who contend that Christianity supplies the moral base for a capitalist America, observe the self-destructive failures of his altruistic foreign policy across the globe (and domestically), and tell me that it is so.

Edited March 12, 2007 by Galileo Blogs

[Galileo Blogs]

On a related topic, has anyone seen the new television commercials for Citgo? Citgo was an American oil company that Venezuela's national oil company bought in 1990. Just as the state-owned Venezuelan oil company has become a tool of Chavez to purchase favor from the "proletariat", so has Citgo. Domestically, Chavez uses oil revenues to purchase favor from the poor masses by providing subsidized food, medical care, soccer stadiums, etc. (He directs this aid toward those who support him and denies it to those who oppose him. As the economy becomes more poor through his policies, such aid becomes a life-and-death weapon not just to curry favor from his supporters, but also to cudgel his opponents.)

Citgo is advertising on television that it is providing below-market fuel oil to some 400,000 poor Americans in 16 states. The ads feature the "downtrodden" Americans who express thanks that they are receiving such wonderful aid from Venezuela. It is disgusting. This began in 2005 when Chavez gave low-cost fuel oil to 45,000 people in Massachusetts. A U.S. congressman, Representative Delahunt, and Joseph P. Kennedy II, CEO of Citizens Energy, which distributes the fuel oil, pandered for the deal and publicly thanked Chavez for this aid. Delahunt has been a pro-Chavez ally in Congress. Money does buy votes, and "hearts and minds."

Given the success of the Massachussetts trial-run, it only makes sense that Citgo/Chavez expanded the program.

More Americans should do this when offered the Venezuelan fuel oil.

Edited March 12, 2007 by Galileo Blogs

[softwareNerd]

Since Citgo is now 100% owned (indirectly) by the Venezuelan government, I wonder if a U.S. company like ExxonMobil could sue to have Citgo given to them in compensation of their property that has been expropriated by the Venezuelan government.

[mrocktor]

Since Citgo is now 100% owned (indirectly) by the Venezuelan government, I wonder if a U.S. company like ExxonMobil could sue to have Citgo given to them in compensation of their property that has been expropriated by the Venezuelan government.

That would be awesome!

[Inspector]

More Americans should do this when offered the Venezuelan fuel oil.

Or, if it is below market prices, grab it and open up a shop to sell it at market prices, profiting at Venezuela's expense. Throw them back a little of their own medicine: "We hate you but we are more than happy to take your stuff."