Let's pick a fight with Russia
Putin humiliated next to Bush "It could be that he kept his cool
Thursday because he couldn't quite believe what was happening to
him."
Robin Shepherd, Washington
Times:
"It all happened following the end of bilateral talks when a
televised press conference turned into a relentless and devastating assault on
Putin's backsliding on democratic reform.
Since global democratization has
been made the centerpiece of Bush's second term foreign policy agenda, analysts
and politicians in the United States and elsewhere had billed this meeting as
the first key test of the American president's credibility.
As Russia
analysts James M. Goldgeier and Michael McFaul had put it in a commentary in the
current issue of the Weekly Standard: 'If the president neglects to affirm his
commitment to freedom with Putin at his side, Bush will be signaling that his
words don't count.'
So most of us were expecting the issue to be raised, if
only in passing.
But no one could have been prepared for what was about to
unfold.
While observing diplomatic niceties, President Bush's opening remarks
included a pointedly blunt statement of his concern that Russia was not
fulfilling "fundamental" democratic principles.
And this was nothing to what
President Putin was forced to endure in the subsequent questions, every single
one of which focused on democracy.
'I think it's very important that all nations understand the great values
inherent in democracy,' said President Bush standing just three feet away from
Putin.
Bush asserted that in his country he was held to account by a free
press, and that his laws were checked by a constitution upheld by a free
judiciary -- the very elements of a free society that rights groups have become
increasingly vocal in criticizing Putin for deliberately destroying in
Russia.
A slavishly loyal question to Putin from Russia's Interfax news
agency merely served to underline how far Russia now stands from normal
democratic procedures.
The reporter petulantly asked what this talk about
lack of freedom in Russia "was all about" suggesting President Putin should
raise issues about press freedom in the United States. Journalists lose their
jobs in America too, he said.
When President Bush said it was true that
journalists did get fired in America, but by their editors and not the
government, one almost started to feel sorry for President Putin.
Putin, to
be fair, did at least maintain his cool, rejecting accusations that Russian
freedom was under threat. And Bush maintained a gentle disposition, saying at
least he could trust the Russian president's word, even when they
disagreed.
Nevertheless, there was no getting away from it. Vladimir Putin
had just gone through the most humiliating experience of his presidency."
If President Bush says it's a good idea to create personal hatred
between himself and a guy who holds the ability to incinerate my hometown, I'm
tempted to go along with it, but I can't figure out what's so great about democracy
anyway?