US takes beating from world leaders at UN: Chávez attacks 'devil' Bush

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad grabbed headlines last week by blasting US policies from the dais of the United Nations General Assembly. But while their words were harsh, in many ways they merely expressed in bolder terms what a number of other world leaders and foreign diplomats believe. This year's gathering of world leaders demonstrated an unusually strident disrespect for the United States, with a central theme running through a number of the speeches delivered, that democracy cannot be imposed through force. "Our peoples have a keen interest in the achievement of a larger measure of democracy, human rights and political reform," said Ahmed Aboul Gheit, foreign minister of Egypt, which receives more than $2 billion in annual aid from the United States. "However, we now see that some seek to impose these concepts by military force. They proceed from the assumption that their principles, values and culture are superior and thus worthy of being imposed on others." As Chávez put it in his fiery speech, which was greeted by wild applause in the chamber: "They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons. What a strange democracy…. What type of democracy do you impose with Marines and bombs?" The next day, Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, held up a coca leaf during his speech to the General Assembly and denounced what he called a "neo-imperialist" approach to coca eradication. "With all respect to the government of the United States, we are not going to change anything," Morales said. "We do not need blackmail or threats." In his speech, Chávez sarcastically referred to Bush's rhetorical device of speaking directly to people in some countries, such as Lebanon. "He spoke to the people of Lebanon. Many of you, he said, have seen how your homes and communities were caught in the crossfire," Chávez said. "How cynical can you get? What a capacity to lie shamefacedly. The bombs in Beirut with millimetric precision? This is crossfire? He's thinking of a Western, when people would shoot from the hip and somebody would be caught in the crossfire. This is imperialist, fascist, assassin, genocidal–the empire and Israel firing on the people of Palestine and Lebanon. That is what happened." The United Nations itself came under harsh criticism. Chávez was blunt: "The UN system born after the Second World War has collapsed. It is worthless," he said. The Venezuelan president called on Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish a committee of world leaders to create a new world body to replace the UN system. In his speech, Iranian President Ahmadinejad asked: "If the governments of the United States or the United Kingdom, who are permanent members of the Security Council, commit aggression, occupation and violation of international law, which of the organs of the United Nations can take them to account?" "And can a Council in which they are privileged members address their violations? Has this ever happened before?" The Iranian president also said the Security Council is being used only to ensure the security and rights of some of the big powers. "But when the oppressed are decimated under bombardment, the Security Council must remain aloof and not even call for a ceasefire?" He was specifically referring to the refusal of the Security Council for an early intervention in the month-long devastation of Lebanon by Israeli military forces recently. Even Annan was constrained to admit that "the world has changed dramatically since 1945 [when the United Nations was created], and the Security Council must change too." "Without an expansion of its power base, it's hard to see how we are going to go on meeting the demands that member states make on us, particularly in the area of peacekeeping," he added. Britain's foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, used the occasion to warn that climate change was a growing threat to international security and the world economy, saying the next 10 years would be crucial. Beckett devoted around half of her speech to climate change, touching only briefly on world crises such as the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. Beckett said climate change posed a "huge challenge" and the "developed, rich world" needed to lead the way in solving it since it bears a large responsibility for the present level of greenhouse gas emissions. "If we do not act now, an unstable climate will undermine our progress in all those other areas that matter to us," she said, singling out water supply as a likely cause of tension. "We must recognize that talk of having either a successful economy or a stable climate is a false choice," she said. "What we do in the next 10 years will count the most." But the most colorful and controversial words were spoken by Chávez against President Bush, most of which were greeted with roaring approval by members of the world body. Brandishing a copy of Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, in a hard-hitting speech, Chávez called the US government "the first enemy of the people." He denounced Bush as a racist, imperialist "devil" who has devoted six years in office to military aggression and the oppression of the world's poorest people. "Yesterday, the devil came here," Chávez said. "Right here. Right here. And it still smells of sulfur today, this table that I am now standing at today." Making the sign of the cross, he added: "Ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here talking as if he owned the world. Truly, as the owner of the world." Officially, most diplomats were quick to frown on the Venezuelan leader's remarks. But in quieter moments, officials and diplomats said they suspected that he was reaching a receptive audience of poor countries that felt exploited and bullied by the United States. "Wherever he looks, he sees extremists," Chávez said about Bush to a roomful of General Assembly delegates, most of them from Africa, Latin America and Asia. "And you, my brother–he looks at your color, and he says, 'Oh, there's an extremist.' Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him." "As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world," Chávez told the chamber of international diplomats. "The president of the United States came to talk to the peoples–to the peoples of the world," he said. "What would those peoples of the world tell him if they were given the floor?.... I think I have some inkling of what the peoples of the south, the oppressed people, think. They would say, 'Yankee imperialist, go home.'" "The world is waking up," Chávez added. "I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism." "The hegemonistic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very existence of the human species," he said. "We appeal to the people of the United States and of the world to halt this threat which is like a sword hanging over our heads." When Chávez stepped down, the vigorous applause lasted so long that it had to be curtailed by the chair. The day before, Bush and Ahmadinejad had already set the tone for the political theater on the world's premier stage. Bush challenged world leaders and their citizens to "stand up for peace" by spurning extremists, in order to promote democracy and end terrorism and armed conflict. Pushing his "Freedom Agenda" for the Middle East, Bush appealed directly to the Iranian people. "The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism and fuel extremism and pursue nuclear weapons," he said. "Extremists in your midst spread propaganda... this propaganda is false and its purpose is to confuse you and justify acts of terror." Ahmadinejad countered with an attack on US domination of the world and the UN. "Some seek to rule the world relying on weapons and threats, while others live in perpetual insecurity and danger," he said. Ahmadinejad insisted that his country did not need nuclear weapons and had no plans to develop them, saying that Tehran's nuclear program is peaceful and he is "at a loss" about what more he can do to provide guarantees. "The bottom line is we do not need a bomb," he said. The president said Iran's uranium enrichment program was in line with the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and denied that nuclear weapons facilities had been hidden from UN inspectors. "Why is the US government so against our people?" Ahmadinejad asked in an interview that day with NBC News. "They speak of war so easily, as if it's on their daily agenda. We never speak of war." Referring to the US's own nuclear arsenal, Ahmadinejad said, "We think that people who produce the atomic bomb cannot, in fact, speak of supporting world peace." Ahmadinejad repeatedly accused the United States of hypocrisy in calling for other nations to dismantle their weapons while it maintained the largest military arsenal in the world. "Again, I ask, who has the nuclear bomb and has used it before?" he asked. "Which one is a bigger danger? One that's trying to develop a fuel for peaceful purposes? Or the one that made a nuclear weapon?"