LAT: Bush Pushes Global Vision: Spreading democratic reform

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush Pushes Global Vision
Spreading democratic reform has become a top U.S. priority, at times trumping urgent issues.

By Tyler Marshall, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — President Bush's ambitious vision of global democratic reform has begun to dominate the administration's foreign affairs agenda, in some cases pushing aside urgent international issues.

So far, the president's plan has been driven mainly by high-level rhetoric, symbolic gestures and a handful of modestly funded development programs. But collectively, this mix has started to shift the focus in relations with key nations.

In the four months since Bush unveiled the approach in his second inaugural address, nearly every meeting with foreign officials and many of the changes taking place within the Bush administration, including several key appointments, has reflected the priority of expanding the boundaries of democracy.

By now, the presidential vision even has its own buzz phrase: "practical idealism," a reference to the policy's underlying premise that in a post-Sept. 11 world, America's national security is tied directly to the spread of free and open societies everywhere, including the Middle East.

Although few foreign policy specialists interviewed for this article questioned the president's personal sincerity, some dismissed his plan as little more than fantasy. Others expressed doubt that the U.S. had the credibility to advance such ambitious reforms — especially in the Islamic world....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-democracy5jun05,0,1288090.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[aquart]

1. Cripes! The idiot wants the Nobel Prize!

But the Swedes aren't fools, right?

[MisterP]

6. a Norwegian MP nominated Bushler and Neville Blairlain for invading

Iraq: "you have to make war to make peace" was the rationale. There was a book about that, I believe

[aquart]

8. Are you sure he was Norwegian?

It sounds more Balkan than Scandinavian.

[MisterP]

9. the PM was Norwegian, I just portmanteau'd Bush and Hitler and Blair

and Neville Chamberlain

[Cha]

2. Freakin' madman!

The US is in an economic meltdown and bush is off trying to conquer the Globe..clean up your own damn chimphouse.

[nolabels]

3. Reform is only double speak code "We have plans for our biggest half"

http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm

[teryang]

4. Preposterous

Not even worth the ink to print it. Zero credibility.

[AuntiBush]

5. Let's see. He destroys our Democracy and has the nerve...

to preach to choirs that are sooo on to him.

I have a global vision for the Chimp: Shot straight into space, or hell - whatever comes first for the WORSE PRESIDENT EVER!

[Jim Sagle]

7. Whadda buncha shit.

[aion]

10. They actually HATE democracy. This is really about Empire economics

These one-worlder global capitalists are knocking down trade barriers, and buying up failed states for pennies on the dollar -- states which they all-too-often have had some complicity in causing to fail.

When Iraq was sanctioned to hell and back, the people became increasingly more desperate. Does anyone actually believe that our corporations are paying 'fair market value' for the properties they're expropriating from the Iraqi people?

These people have had their country sold out from beneath them. We insult their intelligence by suggesting that Bush is pushing the world towards Democracy.

[OneBlueSky]

11. Bush doesn't even know the meaning of the word "geopolitics" . . .

much less understand the concept and its nuances . . . he just doesn't have the intellectual capacity . . .

Bush is just a puppet, the front man for American empire-building . . . policies and decisions are being made elsewhere . . .

[truthisfreedom]

12. "spreading democracy" is an euphemism for "spreading oil control" in the

years following world peak oil. think about it.

[pinniped]

13. It only became a priority when the WMDs were not found in Iraq.

Since then, this POS has been pulling non-stop democracy talk out of his ass.

I don't remember seeing any news articles or reports about the chimPOS and democracy before the non-existant WMDs.

Anyone recall?

[cornermouse]

14. It has become painfully clear that Bush has no concept of what

democracy really is. And by the time he's out of office, no one on the planet is going to want any part of democracy, as defined by Bush.

Practical idealism? Just another PR department attempt to continue to manipulate people.

[tlcandie]

15. Chaos in the name of democracy...

The only thing they care to sow is chaos so they can reap the $$$$ and world and space domination while everyone but them reels from the atrocities created by greed and lust of unrivaled power.

Chaos is their aim. Hence black is white, up is down, right is wrong, etc. A whole new ballgame to keep everyone, but themselves off balance while they rake in the bucks, pull the rug out from everyone. While everyone is picking their jaws up off the floor, they move on to the next intended target of domination.

While we worry and fret over the chaos being sown in Iraq and all over Mother Earth, not to mention loosing our rights in the US, they are dominating space... once that is done it's checkmate-game over.

If you have any doubts watch FSTV's show with Bruce Gagnon, "Arsenal of Hypocrisy". If your eyes aren't opened fully yet, they will be after seeing this special.

Edit:
Bruce's analogy is building space pyramids just like the Egyptians did, but this time in space. Mining the planets can make one rich beyond anything anyone could ever dream, not to mention controlling earth, space and all therein.

Link to FSTV's TV schedule:
http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/fscm2/genx.php?schedule_start=1117864800&name=fstv_schedule

http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/

http://space4peace.blogspot.com/

<snip>
Saturday, June 04, 2005
BUSH SEEKS MILITARY CONTROL OF SPACE

The Bush administration is expected to soon announce a new national space policy that will give the Pentagon the green light to move toward deployment of offensive weapons in space.

The new directive could allow deployment of lasers in space; attack planes that descend on targets from space; anti-satellite weapons, which would disrupt or destroy other nation's satellites; and tungsten rods fired from space platforms that would gather speeds of over 7,000 mph and be able to penetrate underground targets.

<snip>
Gen. Lance Lord, head of the Air Force Space Command, recently told Congress, “Space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny.” The idea that the U.S. is destined to rule the Earth and space militarily needs to be seriously debated by the citizens of our nation. Not only is this a provocative and immoral notion, it is also one that will lead to a massive waste of our hard-earned tax dollars and create a dangerous new arms race. Do we really want war in the heavens?

[Moderator]

16. kick

[RamboLiberal]

17. LAT: Bush's Foreign Policy Shifting ("Practical Idealism")

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-democracy5jun05,0,1288090.story?coll=la-home-headlines

President Bush's ambitious vision of global democratic reform has begun to dominate the administration's foreign affairs agenda, in some cases pushing aside urgent international issues.

So far, the president's plan has been driven mainly by high-level rhetoric, symbolic gestures and a handful of modestly funded development programs. But collectively, this mix has started to shift the focus in relations with key nations.

In the four months since Bush unveiled the approach in his second inaugural address, nearly every meeting with foreign officials and many of the changes taking place within the Bush administration, including several key appointments, has reflected the priority of expanding the boundaries of democracy.

By now, the presidential vision even has its own buzz phrase: "practical idealism," a reference to the policy's underlying premise that in a post-Sept. 11 world, America's national security is tied directly to the spread of free and open societies everywhere, including the Middle East.

Although few foreign policy specialists interviewed for this article questioned the president's personal sincerity, some dismissed his plan as little more than fantasy. Others expressed doubt that the U.S. had the credibility to advance such ambitious reforms — especially in the Islamic world.

[Canuckistanian]

18. "Wild-eyed Fanaticism"

I'll have to remember that...

[wtmusic]

19. "Perfumed-Pig Imperialism"

[jokerman93]

20. Odd Isn't it?

That Democracy has somehow been utterly redefined to mean corporate hegemony and empire at the barrel of a gun.

Wave those flags boys! Democracy is on the march! If you listen carefully, you can almost hear those distant jackboots coming.

[ninkasi]

21. My own feelings

are that if the idiot thinks having a free and open society is great, and democracy is great, then why doesn't he prove it by doing away the the draconian provisions of the Patriot Act, and stop shredding the Bill of Rights?

I mean, those two things would be a good way to lead by example. People all over the world know what has happened to this country with him ruining...er....running it; he can make amends by restoring the rights we had before he stole the first election.

[stickdog]

22. Corrupt & Shoddy Imperial Profiteering? (nt)

[wookie294]

23. Condi Rice admitted the USA never supported "freedom"

A United States historic admission: we did not support freedom and democracy; decided to change this policy

Regional-USA, Politics, 5/28/2005

US Secretary Condoleezza Rice, At the Commonwealth Club, in San Francisco, yesterday acknowledged in a speech and repeated her remarks that the United States of America in the last 60 years has not supported human rights in the Middle East. She said that United States has decided to change this policy saying that the United States had in the "60 years that we had had a policy of essentially ignoring the 'freedom deficit' in the Middle East and in the broader Middle East was giving us neither stability nor democracy. And so from our point of view, there isn't a conflict between national security and the promotion of democracy; they are one and the same."

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/050528/2005052839.html