Chávez attacks 'devil' Bush in UN speech
As speeches at the UN go, it was certainly one of the most overblown. However, it was the reaction it got in the chamber that made me sit up and take notice.
The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, received so much applause that it had to be curtailed by the chair. And what had he said that caused so much excitement? Not a lot. But he had expressed a visceral hatred for George W Bush and the neo-cons that was apparently welcomed by huge swathes of the nations gathered at this international forum.
And he came up with some phrases that will live long in the memory:
And, of course, Bolton had a point. But so, too, did Chavez. Like Ahmadinejad the day before he appeared to be highlighting the extent to which the United Nations has been kidnapped by the US and used, when it suits, as an instrument of US foreign policy and simply discarded when it does not."This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the devil. It smells of sulphur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all."
He went on to accuse the US of double standards on terrorism. "The US has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and elsewhere ... I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse."
Coming just 12 hours after Washington's other nemesis, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, had stood at the same spot and accused the US of hegemony and hypocrisy, Mr Chávez's colourful speech left US administration officials exasperated. John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, said afterwards that it was a "comic strip approach to international affairs" and "insulting".
Mr Chávez could openly say what he wanted in Central Park, he added: "Too bad President Chávez doesn't extend the same freedom of speech and the press to the people of Venezuela. That's my comment on his speech."
This was the central hypocrisy on display yesterday when Bush, the man who flouted the UN in 2003 in order to illegally invade and occupy Iraq, demanded that Iran face sanctions if they did not obey UN resolutions.
The same people who have said they do not need "a permission slip" from the UN in order to invade other countries are demanding that the Iranians do, in fact, need a "permission slip" in order to enrich uranium, an act which is perfectly legal under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.
The reaction from the rest of the chamber certainly implies that Chavez touched upon a raw nerve, no matter how overblown his rhetoric was.
The simple truth is that for the past half decade George Bush and the neo-cons have treated the UN with contempt, and yesterday it was possible to detect that contempt being reciprocated back towards them.
As Bush now attempts to persuade the chamber that sanctions should applied to Iran he is going to feel the full force of the animosity he has created towards his nation in that building. He will, no doubt, take this as a further example of the uselessness of the UN.
He would do better to wonder how an international community that, shortly after 9-11, declared (through Nato) that "an attack on America is an attack on all of us" came in such a short period of time to oppose his actions with such vehemence.
If he were remotely honest with himself, the reasons for the change of heart would stare him in the face. But he will continue to consider this animosity as further proof that he was right to distrust the UN.
As you sow, so shall you reap.
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