International Law

Perhaps My Last Post on Rule of Law

By Stan

OK, I have written way too much on U.S. politics during the past couple of days, so consider this the last one for a while.

I found the following in the Washington Post, a partial transcript of an interview Bush gave to Sky News during his recent European trip. It is utterly embarrassing:

Here’s the transcript and video of Bush’s interview with Boulton of Sky News.

Boulton: "I mean, you’ve talked a lot about freedom. I’ve heard you talk about freedom — I think every time I’ve seen you."

Bush: "Yes."

Boulton: "And yet there are those who would say, look, let’s take Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib and rendition and all those things, and to them that is the, you know, the complete opposite of freedom."

Bush: "Of course if you want to slander America, you can look at it one way. But you go down — what you need to do — I think I suggested you do this at a press conference — if you go down to Guantanamo and take a look at how these prisoners are treated — and they’re working it through our court systems. We are a land of law. "

Boulton: "But the Supreme Court have just said that — you know, ruled against what you’ve been doing down there."

Bush: "But the district court didn’t. And the appellate court didn’t."

Boulton: "The Supreme Court is supreme, isn’t it?" [I didn’t see the video, but the tone as I read it is appropriately condescending. My goodness.]

Bush: "It is, and I accept their verdict. I don’t agree with their verdict. And it’s not what I was doing down there. This was a law passed by our United States Congress that I worked with the Congress to get passed and sign into law."

Boulton: "But it looked like an attempt to bypass the Constitution, to a certain extent."

Bush: "This was a law passed, Adam. We passed a law. Bypassing the Constitution means that we did something outside the bounds of the Constitution. We went to the Congress and got a piece of legislation passed."

Boulton: "Which is now being struck down, I think." [Holy crap! Someone stop the interview, for heaven’s sake. This is simply too painful.]

(The italicized parts are my comments, when I couldn’t hold myself back any longer.) This whole thing reads like something from Da Ali G Show, and it literally pains me to read it. However, my recent life and career is wedded to promoting the Rule of Law in China, a topic that I pontificate about frequently and am asked about on a regular basis.

I suppose I can still extol the virtues of Rule of Law as a private citizen, but I certainly can’t use the USA as an example these days, and I fail to see how anyone in the U.S. government can chide Beijing over trade rules or the like after what the Bush Administration has done in the past few years. The interview nicely illustrates how Bush seemingly doesn’t "get it" and yet continues to proselytize the merits of freedom, democracy and Rule of Law for the rest of the world.

Am I over-reacting or is it really that bad??? My head might explode at any moment.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on June 17, 2008 (boomark / email).