![[FSF
Associate Member]](http://www.modspil.dk/images/fsfMembergetButton.png){kind=small}
Email to Dick Cheney
Punditokraterne, en weblog jeg oftest ikke er ret enig med, bringer en gæstekommentar af Samuel Rachlin, som har form af en åben email til Dick Cheney.
Vi bringer et uddrag:
It's fine with me that you give President Putin a lecture and tell him what democracy is about, and that he should not use the oil weapon against his neighbours. I think it's appropriate that you tell him that the Russian government has "unfairly and improperly restricts the rights of her people." and that Moscow should not use oil and gas as a tool of "intimidation and blackmail". I also find it OK when you tell new East European and Baltic democracies in Vilnius that they are on the right track and they have the full support of the U.S.Overraskende klar og præcis tale, og cadeau til Punditokraterne for at fremskaffe og publicere kommentaren.
But I have a problem when you, after that meting, move on to Kazakhstan to visit President Nursultan Nazarbaev - a mix between Ghengis Khan and a Soviet Politbureau Member without any tolerance of opposition or respect of human right, but with great patience with corruption and abuse of power. He is a leader of the same mold as Azerbaidzhan's President Ilham Aliyev who recently was received by your boss in the White House.
It's a problem for me because it creates a lot of confusion and uncertainty about the American message. Nazarbayev and Aliyev are by no means on the right track to democracy and are even more undemocratic and despotic than President Putin and his crowd in the Kremlin. It's obvious that this weakens the message to Moscow and causes confusion among the East European leaders you met with in Vilnius.
Nazarbayev and Aliyev both control significant oil wealth, and you have to understand that this could lead some people to think that the U.S. applies different criteria and values for who's in and who's out, and who should be lectured on what's wrong and what's right. That's what we call double standards. When you and your boss cultivate relationships with people like Nazabayev and Aliyev one could get the impression that you distinguish between those who have and those who don't have oil. The new breed of haves and haves not.
Some people could draw the conclusion that if you have oil it does not matter that much that you violate the rules of democracy and suppress basic human rights...
Via Citizen Dane.
Læs det hele.