The US President condemns leaders who ‘sit down at the table’ with ‘tyrants’ and ‘have pictures taken’ for adopting double standards.
“What’s lost by embracing a tyrant who puts his people in prison because of their political beliefs? What’s lost is it will send the wrong message,” said President George W. Bush during a Thursday press conference.
“It will give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity,” he added.
Bush made the remarks when asked if he would back Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for his proposed foreign policy of holding talks with ‘US adversaries’ -such as Iran and Cuba- without any preconditions.
When he was reminded by a reporter that Senator Obama only plans to ‘hold talks’ with the countries that the US does not see eye to eye with, the US President said ‘thank you for reminding me to use a different word’.
“Well, talking to him is embracing. Excuse me. Let me use another word — you’re right, ’embrace’ is like big hug, right?” said President Bush.
“Sitting down at the table, having your picture taken with a tyrant such as Raul Castro, for example, lends the status of the office and the status of our country to him. He gains a lot from it by saying, look at me, I’m now recognized by the President of the United States,” he continued.
This is while President Bush has apparently forgotten about the numerous times he sat down and had his picture taken with leaders of questionable human rights credentials, such as the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.