Kommersant : George Bush Confounded

George Bush Confounded

Venezuelan President Exorcises the American Devil

by Dmitry Sidorov (New York) and Petr Yozh | September 22, 2006

The current session of the United Nations General Assembly will undoubtedly turn out to be one of the most scandalous in the organization's history. The meeting this year has turned into an anti-American forum: so far the session has hosted appearances by Washington's most irreconcilable opponents, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. The latter even gave a theatrical speech before the Assembly in which he referred to George Bush as the devil.

Difficult Days

For the residents of New York, little can compare with the inconveniences that accompany a session of the UN General Assembly. Every year for four days in September, the city is overwhelmed by massive traffic jams. According to information obtained by Kommersant, more than 10,000 New York City police officers, together with their colleagues from the US Secret Service and the security details of the different world leaders, were on hand to coordinate the movement of motorcades carrying innumerable heads of state.

Despite all of the complications involved in the organization of the routes for the world leaders, George Bush arrived at the United Nations building with no particular problems. The hitch appeared in conjunction with his speech, which started almost half an hour behind schedule. The guilty party was outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who gave a lengthy farewell speech on the occasion of his departure after ten years in the post.

It is hardly likely that anyone would dare to describe as friendly the mood in the United Nations before the speech by the US president. Around two-thirds of the member nations of the UN are considered developing countries. Many of their leaders attended the summit of the Nonaligned Movement in Havana last week, where they clearly expressed their hostility to the White House, and the tinge of anti-Americanism has carried over into the meeting in New York.

Nevertheless, in his speech before a critical audience, George Bush did not try to win them over – he appealed directly to the people. Mr. Bush stressed his respect for Islam and attempted to contrast America's friend and enemies in the Near East. Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain were included on the list of nations that, in the opinion of the White House, are making progress in the evolution of democracy. On the other list were Syria and Iran. Addressing the Syrians, Mr. Bush stated, "Your land has always been the homeland of a great people famous for their traditions of education and trade. Today your leaders have turned the country into a crossroads of terrorism."

Mr. Bush then said more than a few flattering words about the history and culture of Iran and added words of respect for the nation's people before asking the Iranian government to give up its nuclear ambitions, give freedom to its people, and stop supporting terrorism. Mr. Bush also tried to explain to the Iranians that, "despite the regime's propaganda in their country, the United States does not oppose Iran's desire to work on a truly peaceful nuclear program."

The two main enemies of Mr. Bush who were in town for the General Assembly, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez, did not attended his speech. Likewise, Mr. Bush did not care to hear what they had to say. As White House press secretary Tony Snow announced at a briefing on Wednesday, "the President is informed of the basic positions taken in Mr. Ahmadinejad's speeches." Kommersant later learned that the president of Iran had looked over a transcript of Mr. Bush's speech on Wednesday evening.

Expelling the Devil

The speeches by the presidents of Iran and Venezuela needlessly reminded everyone yet again that the orators are people of faith. Mr. Ahmadinejad devoted approximately a third of his speech to prayers and invocations to God. His Venezuelan colleague went a little further in his fantasies.

"The devil, the devil in the flesh is in this building!" cried the Venezuelan leader from the speaker's rostrum of the UN. "The devil was here yesterday. Right here in this spot! I still smell sulphur!"

Pointing to the speaker's podium, where George Bush had stood the day before, the president of Venezuela began to cross himself.

Most surprisingly, the diplomats and assembled presidents began to applaud him as if they were attending the theater. The seats allocated to the American delegation remained empty.

Besides its innovative theatrical design, the rhetoric of the rest of Mr. Chavez's speech contained nothing new. Both his speech and the speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad focused on the unfairness of the forces in the world today. Mr. Chavez and Mr. Ahmadinejad laid the blame at the feet of America and Great Britain, calling them "occupiers and aggressors" who support the "Zionist regime." In addition, both presidents called for reform of the United Nations along lines radically different from any previous proposals.

The Iranian president expressed his conviction that "the mechanism of the work of the United Nations Security Council is built on outdated principles that were put in place after the Second World War, and as such they are in need of change." The necessity of reforming the Security Council, according to Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech, follows from the unfounded complaints leveled by several governments against "Iran's transparent and peaceful nuclear program." He suggested that the UN General Assembly extend the offer of a permanent seat on the Security Council to three UN member nations: one that is a member of the Nonaligned Movement, one from the Islamic Confederation, and one from the African Union.

Hugo Chavez also spoke at length about the necessity of expanding the UN Security Council and suggested Venezuela as one of its permanent members. In addition, Mr. Chavez proposed stripping the permanent members of the Council of their veto power. The Venezuelan president grounded his remarks in the claim that "the veto belonging to the United States allowed Israel to destroy Lebanon."

Judging from the deafening applause that interrupted Mr. Chavez, reform of the UN, which the United States has always insisted on, may not go in the direction that the White House would like it to. Meanwhile, only a week ago Mr. Chavez gave a speech in which he laid out different, but no less original, suggestions for reforming the United Nations. In his speech at the summit of the Nonaligned Movement, the Venezuelan leader demanded that the headquarters of the UN be moved from the United States to Syria or Brazil.

The UN General Assembly is still going on, and it is possible that many more unpleasant moments lie ahead for the United States. The United Nations is due to choose a general secretary, and America's position on the matter does not coincide with that of the majority of the other member-states, particularly Russia and China.

In proportion to the evolution of events at the current session of the General Assembly, voices in the United States are more and more often being heard complaining about the trivial and unnecessary nature of the proceedings. Some analysts even predict that Congress in the current fall session will move to sharply curtail American contributions to the UN's budget, on the grounds that the organization brings too many problems and inconveniences.