ANOTHER DOSE OF HYPOCRISY FROM BUSH IN MIDDLE EAST

I don't understand how come Bush said nothing yesterday to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak about Mubarak's trashing of democracy in Egypt where dissidents are thrown in jail and members of the political opposition are deemed "terrorists." Yet a few days before, Bush made that pompous speech in Abu Dhabi where he said that freedom and democracy were God's gift to mankind.

At the same time Bush rants against Iranian president Ahmadinejad and threats the Iranian nation with annihilation for sending five small speedboats out to investigate warships of the U.S. fleet in the Straits of Hormuz. Yet he is strangely reticent with the president of the Egyptian dictatorship. Remember Egypt is one of those nations where Bush illegally sent American prisoners to be "interrogated." He once boasted about this, saying, in effect, that they disappeared thereafter, and he was not unhappy about that.

Bush wants democracy where the outcome of the vote agrees with his pre-formed opinions. But he rejects democracy where the outcome does not suit him. Witness his rejection of the democratically Hamas government in Gaza. Bush calls Hamas a "terrorist organization." Another example - Bush's contempt for Hugo Chavez, democratically elected as president of Venezuela with more than 70% of the vote. Where the outcome does not suit Bush, he claims that either the election was rigged or that the elected government oppresses its people.