Despite Iraq (and Zimbabwe), Bush and the Queen proclaim commitment to defend and spread liberty around the world -The iPINIONS Journal

Like most Washingtonians, I tuned in to watch the Arrival Ceremony for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the White House yesterday. But where most people seemed taken in by the elaborate pomp and circumstance on display (and by speculation about the menu and guest lists for tea and dinner), I was actually taken aback by some of Bush’s and the Queen’s welcoming remarks:

We understand and accept the burdens of global leadership. And we have built our special relationship on the surest foundations — our deep and abiding love of liberty…. Today our two nations are defending liberty against tyranny and terror….

You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 — in 1976. (Laughter.) She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child. (Laughter.) [President George W. Bush, complete with patented gaffe]

And it is the time to look forward, jointly renewing our commitment to a more prosperous, safer and freer world. [HM Queen Elizabeth II]

After all, I expected them to limit their mutual admiration to platitudes about their much-vaunted “special relationship”, which evidently dictates that if the United States jumps off a cliff (into Iraq for example), the United Kingdom would jump too. Instead, they both spoke in a manner and of deeds that invoked the halcyon days of British imperialism – with Bush blithely claiming (as the Queen herself might have 50 years ago) “the [white man’s] burdens of global leadership.”

Except, of course, that that burdensome war in Iraq made a mockery of the utility (or futility as the case might be) of their remarks. Indeed, no matter how much paint was plastered on the White House or how many toy soldiers were costumed for the occasion, Iraq trampled over their words like a pink elephant dropping fecal IEDs on the South Lawn. And, never mind that Bush’s approval ratings are so low that the only leadership he’s showing these days is in setting new standards for presidential incompetence and lame duckery….

Meanwhile, apropos “the white man’s burden”, it would appear the Queen has developed an acute case of selective deafness when it comes to the despairing cries of her subjects in the British Commonwealth nation of Zimbabwe. Because as she was enjoying a weekend of horse racing, her own British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) was airing an interview with Zimbabwean Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo in which he decried the failure of leadership in her Commonwealth to rescue his people from the genocidal tyranny of their president, Robert Mugabe.

In fact, I extolled Archbishop Ncube’s leadership in this respect in an article over two years ago – when he was calling on fellow Zimbabweans to revolt against Zimbabwe, not looking to US and UK crusaders to liberate them. Unfortunately, since then, Mugabe has squashed the notion of revolution with such an iron fist that even Ncube has been reduced to pleading for him to just resign in the name of the Lord.

The situation in Zimbabwe is getting steadily worse but even though people’s morale has been broken they should not be intimidated….President Mugabe must go….You can’t negotiate with him. It’s useless. African presidents have tried to negotiate with that man to no avail.

Meanwhile, genocide rages on in Zimbabwe under the deaf, dumb and blind auspices of Her Majesty the Queen – with heads of state of her Commonwealth of nations doing more to cuddle Mugabe than to liberate his victims. Which, of course, makes a mockery of the Queen’s proclamation of the United Kingdom’s commitment “to a more prosperous, safer and freer world.”

Cheers!

Bush and the Queen