04-30-2006, 02:16 PM
This is the reality of the West's hand in the world...
<b>Bush Praises Muslim Ally</b>
President hosts leader of Azerbaijan, an oil-rich nation with a spotty human rights record.
By James Gerstenzang, L.A. Times Staff Writer, April 29, 2006
WASHINGTON — President Bush praised Azerbaijan's president Friday despite human rights problems documented by the State Department, and said the country had a "very important role to play" in meeting global energy needs.
With Aliyev sitting in an armchair next to him, Bush held out Azerbaijan as "a modern Muslim country that is able to provide for its citizens, that understands that democracy is the wave of the future."
The meeting reflected the difficulty the administration faces as it seeks to maintain U.S. access to oil and gas supplies from countries that may be unstable or unreliable, often because of corruption or human rights abuses.
A year ago, Azerbaijan celebrated the opening of an 1,100-mile pipeline from its capital, Baku, on the Caspian Sea, that runs through Georgia to a Turkish port on the Mediterranean. The event was important enough to the U.S. that Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman attended.
The pipeline created a link that bypasses Iran, Russia and neighboring Armenia, and it is expected to carry 1 million barrels of oil a day to Western markets by 2008.
Bush expressed his appreciation to Aliyev several times, thanking him for support in the war in Iraq and for his help in achieving "what we all want, which is energy security."
Aliyev, speaking English, said his three-day U.S. visit would be important in developing Azerbaijan as "a modern, secular, democratic country. He said his nation shared "the same values" as the United States.
Aliyev responded with a broad grin when Bush, at the end of a photo session that concluded their meeting, added a word of congratulations. Bush noted the wedding this weekend of Aliyev's daughter.
"It's a major sacrifice for the president to be here during the planning phases of the wedding," Bush said. "And we wish you and the first lady all the best, and more importantly, we wish your daughter all the best."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...headlines-world
You see Democracy is sometimes acceptable in foreign lands, but if and only if it is consistent with US strategic and economic interests.
Robert Pastor, President Carter’s national security advisor for Latin America explained Amerika's religious doctrine very precisely;
"The United States did not want to control Nicaragua or the other nations of the region, but it also did not want developments to get out of control. It wanted Nicaraguans to act independently, except when doing so would affect U.S. interests adversely."
Similar dilemmas faced Bush administration planners after their invasion of Iraq. They want Iraqis "to act independently, except when doing so would affect U.S. interests adversely." Iraq must therefore be sovereign and democratic, but within limits. It must somehow be constructed as an obedient client state, much in the manner of the traditional order in Central America.
Amerika has proven time and time again it does not want true democracy anywhere. Central Amerika is testament to that. And now the middle east and central asia is in the spotlight. Their on-going "democracy enhancement" programs are a charade to control the world just like the nations before them.