Journalists in Kenya and Ireland weigh in on Bush inauguration speech

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

World media: Bush inaugural a jolt
Emphasis on freedom still takes unilateral road alienating foreign press.
By Jim Bencivenga | csmonitor.com

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0121/dailyUpdate.html



"Bush's speech focused on the 'power of freedom', saying that the best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world. On that, not many people will disagree. The differences are over what he understands by 'freedom' and how the benefits of democracy should be spread in the world – or indeed whether it is any country's business to export democracy to others... It is possible to have the freer world that Bush speaks of, but the idea that those who are strong and have a larger arsenal have an unchallenged right to impose their will on the weak, undermines democracy." – Nation (Kenya)

"Critics who were hoping that he would get mired in detail about Iraq were mistaken. Instead he went back to basics, reaching out to the belief of most Americans in the fundamental importance of freedom and using that to explain his policies at home and abroad. At times it sounded more like a sermon than a speech. Mr. Bush may not be much of a speaker. But sometimes the message is more important than eloquence and what he had to say yesterday had the power of real conviction." – Irish Independent.

Iraq was never mentioned by name, yet its recent history resonated when Bush applied Abraham Lincoln's words: "those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it" to his own phrase "the rulers of outlaw regimes."

This was too much for The Toronto Star which called such language "unabashedly aggressive." And though "delivered from the west steps of the US Capitol... tailored for world capitals." The BBC viewed such words as "warning bells... ringing in foreign capitals such as Tehran and Damascus."

[Eloriel]

1. And I viewed the words as ...

expansionist, imperialist, fascist, and Hitleresque.

[Sugarbleus]

2. Yep, and I want to know

WHO'S GOING TO STOP THEM??? Does anyone else ever wonder whether other countries, who dislike this neocon agenda, might "take action" against them/us??

A whole lot of talking by everyone regarding the Bush Agenda but not much in the way of action by any one any where. It all kinda creeps me out.