Whose Side Is Obama On?
Last Saturday, Honduran soldiers marched into the presidential palace, bundled up President Manuel Zelaya and put him on a plane for Costa Rica.
The ouster had been ordered by the Supreme Court and approved by the Congress, as Zelaya was attempting an illegal referendum to change the Honduran constitution so he could run for another term.
Will someone please explain why this bloodless transfer of power to the civilian legislator first in line for the presidency, in a sovereign nation, is any business of the United Nations, the Organization of American States, Hugo Chavez, the Castro brothers, or Barack Obama? For all have denounced the “coup” and demanded Zelaya’s immediate return.
The hypocrisy here is astounding.
Chavez was imprisoned for his bloody coup attempt in Venezuela in 1992. And to have Fidel Castro’s dictatorship of half a century denouncing a glitch in the democratic process of a Western Hemisphere republic is beyond parody.
What percentage of the 200 member nations of that septic tank of anti-Americanism, the United Nations, are democracies? How many leaders of its member states came to power through free and fair elections?
And what happened to the idea of non-intervention in the internal affairs of Western Hemisphere republics? At this writing, Honduras is not buckling.
“We have established a democratic government, and we will not cede to pressure from anyone. We are a sovereign country,” said Roberto Micheletti, who was named caretaker president to serve out Zelaya’s term, which ends this year.
Unlike Tehran, where hundreds of thousands protested the election, the streets of Tegucigalpa have remained calm. No one has been shot, beaten with clubs or run down by thugs on motorcycles.
Just whose side is Barack on in Latin America?
Though elected as a center-right candidate, Zelaya has moved into the orbit of Chavez, whose idea it was to change the Honduran constitution to get Zelaya another term. Hugo even provided the ballots. In Latin America, term limits have been written into constitutions to prevent a return to the time of the dictators and presidents-for-life. The folks who put Zelaya aboard that plane are friends of the United States.
Why are Obama and Hillary Clinton meddling in the affairs of a friendly country, to dump over a friendly government, to reinstate a friend of Hugo’s, whose goal is to bring Honduras into his anti-American “Bolivarian Revolution”?
Like Barack’s strange behavior in Trinidad, where he grinned away as Chavez handed him an anti-American tract, then listened for an hour to Daniel Ortega berate us for cruelty to Castro’s Cuba, without protest or retort, Obama is coming off as one who shares the international left’s view of the United States.
There is another issue raised by Obama’s denunciation of our friends in Honduras. Does he put ideology ahead of U.S. national interests? Does he prefer hostile democracies to friendly autocrats?
What comes first with Obama?
“He may be an SOB, but he’s our SOB,” FDR said of one Latin dictator. What FDR meant was that, in those grave times when Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin and Japanese militarists ruled most of Eurasia, America must take her friends where she could find them.
In World War II, we welcomed the alliance with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and the neutrality of the autocrats of Madrid and Lisbon. We partnered with Stalin. Gen. Eisenhower cut a deal with Vichy’s Adm. Darlan to get GIs safely ashore in North Africa.
From 1961 to 1979, Park Chung-hee was an authoritarian ruler of South Korea who sent 50,000 troops to fight beside ours in Vietnam. Was he not a better friend than Olof Palme of Sweden, Pierre Trudeau of Canada and Willy Brandt of Germany, who burnished their democratic credentials by scoring points off the United States?
For most Cold War presidents, U.S. national interests always trumped democratist ideology. Ike preferred the Shah to the democratically elected Mohammad Mossadegh. Richard Nixon preferred Gen. Pinochet to the elected Salvador Allende.
Even George W. Bush, who had pushed for Palestinian elections and insisted on Hamas’ inclusion, perhaps because he thought they would lose, did a somersault when Hamas won.
How to explain the universality of the attacks on Honduras — when few United Nations members outside the West condemned Tehran and Hugo Chavez rushed to congratulate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — other than the fact that this “coup” removed an adversary of the United States?
Anti-Americans stand by their own, no matter how they came to power, or retain power. Only in the West do we seem always prepared to abandon our flawed friends who do not measure up.
This is a formula for eventually not having any friends.
That Obama finds himself in camp with Castro’s Cuba, Ortega’s Nicaragua and Chavez, who is openly threatening Honduras, should tell him something about where his ideology is taking him, and us.
One day, Obama is going to have to decide whether he wishes to be the darling of the international left or the unapologetic leader of the nation that is most resented and reviled by the international left.
COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
I visited Honduras a few decades ago and enjoyed my stay, but I don’t live there and I figure that who rules Honduras is none of my business nor anyone else’s but the Hondurans. Just like who rules Iran is the business of the Iranians. But the real news from Honduras is not new at all and is mentioned just in passing in the reports. The US already has a garrison of 800 in Honduras, allegedly to help fight the “war on drugs”. Eight hundred may not sound like many but in proportion to the size of the country and its population, it’s enough to remind the Hondurans of whose empire they are part of. Whichever side of this local fight Obama takes, he will be doing the wrong thing, whether he supports the new government or compels the overturning of the “coup” by military pressure or ending US aid. The aid, mostly military and drug war related, should be ended anyway and the troops withdrawn. Then let the Hondurans decide their own rulers.
Wow! Very impressive. It’s good to know there are people like who really understands what happend here in Honduras. I think Obama’s cold attitude to defend democracy in Honduras will have a cost on his polical carreer. Thanks for being objective. I hope OEA and ONU rectifies before it’s to late.
un artículo muy interesante. Soy de acuerdo
Have you forgotten that only a few months ago you and The American Conservative were doing everything in your power to get Obama elected over McCain? As you truely say: “The hypocrisy here is astounding.”
One has to laugh at the memory of the man who invented the “wife-spanking” machine. In filing his patent, or soon thereafter, a judge fined him for mis-use of the creative genius.
How much should we fine you, for wasting your encyclopedic knowledge, and any investigative effort you may (or may not) have spent?
Obama has developed a reputation as a calculated liar, both on the domestic stage, and the international one. His usual M.O. is to loudly proclaim something, while some secret envoy has quietly assured those being attacked, that he doesn’t really mean it.
Perhaps the awkwardness between Hillary and Obama has slowed down this practice, but it will get back up to speed soon.
Honduras did not take the time and trouble to announce internationally what law Manuel Zelaya broke, nor what court secretly met (need some retro-active paperwork, there, guys), to legitimize this mess. All we know so far is that Zelaya was firing generals, which all these complaining Presidents of other crooked countries will insist is their right.
Within a year, there will be an election in Honduras, and a new legitimate President, and all will be forgiven. Let Philip Giraldi, or somebody else from the rabidly-left “antiwar.com”, go dig up more information for us.
Pat, rather, talk about the Czar situation in the US, and the broken promise of a website to track TARP/Stimuli expenditures, and the fact that Congress and Senate are having votes on “not previously published” bills; bills that they don’t even read prior to voting.
*Thousands* of nuisance bills are pushed through congress, perhaps congratulating the new mayor of “Miles Around”, Texas, that most ignore, and from time to time, nuisance earmarks are stuffed quietly into these at the last minute.
What can “conservatives” do to clean house, *before* the pendulum swings back to the “right”, and a bunch of conservative-sounding crooks line up to suck up our votes? Didn’t our side have “czars”, and proclaim executive privelege to escape testifying before congress, under Bush?
How do we take our country back, not from Obama, but from the quietly-growing collection of crooks in congress, and other parts of the the federal government? “Whose side is Patrick J. Buchanan on?”
Langley, although I can’t be 100 percent sure, from what he wrote in his columns last fall I’m about 90 percent sure Pat voted for McCain.
Gee Barney, thanks for the kind words. Never been associated with the rabid-left before. As far as I am concerned Pat B. might be right or wrong about what has happened in Honduras and why – he really doesn’t know, does he, any more than he really knows about the Iranian election? But the United States has no horse in this race and should stay out of it. Telling other people what they should do in their own countries hasn’t worked very well recently, has it?
According to Article 239 of our Honduran Constitution: “No citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.”
“Immediately,” as in “instantly.” No trial required. No impeachment process necessary. No time for changing from pajamas into something more camera-friendly. Immediately. Odd as it may seem to the rest of the world, the Honduran people have taken their Constitution literally. And Mr. Zelaya is welcome to have a go at public office again in 2019.
How would you react to a Bush or Clinton attempt to amend the US Constitution regarding term limits if the Constitution expressly prohibited even proposing an amendment? And what if the US Constitution empowered the military to carry out arrests as needed? You would rally in support. It is so outlined in our Honduran Constitution.
Within a few hours of Mel Zelaya’s removal the interim president Roberto Micheletti was sworn into office, again, as outlined in the Honduran Constitution. Hardly a military coup.
On the subject of Honduras, I’m glad that some voices (like yours, Pat, whatever our other differences) are pointing out the unusual Constitution of Honduras – the removal of Zelaya is, on its own, a quite legal maneuver.
But the rest of your premise is frightening: you think we should make “friend where we can find them”, and not care if they are dictators?
And people wonder why us International Lefties aren’t too fond of US foreign policy.
I’m glad you mentioned Hamas, and the US’s total reversal on Palestinian “free elections” once a group they didn’t like (Hamas) got elected – it shows that the US gov’t is not, nor ever really has been, an ideologically minded governing body in any way.
As to the issue of whether or not it *should* be, I say yes, it should. I do, however, generally hold to the TAC consensus that war to “back up” ideology is wrong on its face on many levels.
Langley, just for the record Pat Buchanan did not support Obama. Pointing out where republicans have gone astray and how they’re not adhering to traditionally conservative principals does not equate to support for liberal democrats. We are looking at things from a long term perspective. There is a lot more internal debate and reflection that needs to go on before the republicans will be ready for prime time again. McCain most likely would have enacted the same disastrous types of policies as Obama, only it would be much worse because we would have signed our names to them. .
Tony, The American Conservative spent about 80% of its space attacking McCain and the republicans. That’s supporting Obama.
Buchanan doesn’t do much of anything for the magazine anymore (while I wish he would) except for TAC using his nationally syndicated columns.
I’m from Honduras and I’ve witnessed many of Mr.Zelaya’s acts and we’re shocked that no one in the world is willing to listen to our interim goverment as regards to our side of the story and why they are trying to put this obvious Chavez puppet in power. What went on in Honduras was the equivalent of an Impeachment here in the U.S. granted many are asking why was he taken at gun point from his house, ok the reason is that he wasn’t listening to anyone and was doing what he wanted, he was told to stop, he didn’t care, no matter what anyone would try to do or say he was gonna do what he had to do. WHY WASN’T HE ARRESTED AND JAILED? ok because if he would’ve been, Chaos would have erupted like the one at the airport yesterday resulting in more than 1 dead, that I can guarantee. Here’s a comment that I found which describes the situation very clearly from an American citizen currently living in Honduras.
The following comment was written by Daniel Dyer in the Wall Street Journal
I am an American that has lived in Honduras since 1977. I have seen this country when it was run by the military. I saw it form the constitution on which it currently stands. I saw the civilian police force be reformed and watch the judicial system grow and come into its own. I have watched the maturing of Honduras into a grounded solid representational democracy.
Venezuela and Ecuador are run by left wing dictators. Venezuela in particular was supporting a move by the president of Honduras to basically take over the country. This has resulted in a crisis pitting the executive branch against the congress and the Supreme Court. The president was attempting to place himself in a position where by he could force a rewriting of the constitution to remove the clause on term limits there by allowing him to remain in office indefinitely. The illegal move toward the “cuarta urna” had created massive unrest across the country and Honduras was heading toward a confrontation which puts at risk the representational democracy on which this country stands.
Contrary to news reports this was neither military coup nor conspiracy. This was two branches of government (Supreme Court and Congress) moving to oust a president that was abusing his power and flaunting the law. Honduras correctly identified the president’s actions as an overt, aggressive and illegal attempt to install a Chavez style dictatorship in Honduras and rejected that attempt in a lawful constitutional manner that resulted in the president’s removal from office. The president of Honduras is a democratically elected official but so also is the congress and the Supreme Court. The division of powers in a representational democracy exists precisely so that one of the branches will not be allowed to abuse power and also allows for the removal of that representative if the law is broken. This is what has happened to president Zelaya. Hugo Chavez is an ego maniac that has attempted to spread his socialist/dictatorship philosophy to many countries. He thought that he had obtained a foothold in Central America by way of Honduras. He was wrong.
The events of the last few weeks have shown me that my faith in Honduras and its people is not in vain. Honduras, you should be very proud of yourselves.
Now why would Premier Obama allow this? We are trying very hard not to be under Chavez control and seeing the OAS and The UN’s reacting it’s become quite clear that they are now influenced by him as well.
If the vote that he wanted to hold on that Sunday would’ve gone through, the congress we currently have would’ve have been DISBANDED that very same AFTERNOON and that’s how we would’ve got our very own CHAVEZ WANNABE, it’s as simple as that.
This man says that why didn’t the Congress take him to trial? that’s because he wouldn’t listen or obey the congress. All of my countrymen that read this will agree with, except the ones that are in his favor and to those I’m begging you, open your eyes and just look at whats going on in Venezuela and Cuba and I ask you, if that’s the way you want to live?
I see all these other leftist presidents who are tagging along with Zelaya and I must imagine the amount pressure that Chavez must be putting on them to not let making Zelaya say or do anything that will make him look like an idiot, because now Chavez has realized that Mr. Zelaya is a weak point in the Alba.
And again he was extradited for his own safety as well as ours. Just look at what happened yesterday when he attempted to return. 1 dead and if he had been jailed since last Sunday?
who knows how many would’ve died.
I just hope the U.S. or any other country will listen to why he was taken out of power and give a chance to show the facts and proof of all the criminal activites that Mr. Zelaya has done.
Pat,
You’re right on the merits but after the disaster that was the neocon-led Bush administration, the power of symbolism is very important, and Obama does not wish to ally himself with the perception of the U.S. supporting yet another coup in Latin America. It is only because Obama understands the power of words and the need to break from past U.S. imperialist activities that we have even been able to recast the Middle East debate so that we no longer act the vassal of serially-criminal Israel.
Langley, on July 3rd, 2009 at 6:38 am Said:
“Have you forgotten that only a few months ago you and The American Conservative were doing everything in your power to get Obama elected over McCain?”
Since when are you positing that TAC was favoring Obama over McCain? As I recall, TAC’s pick of a presidential candidate was pretty unanimous: RON PAUL.