Bush’s ‘Consolation Prize’ for Colombia: El Espectador of Colombia

There was a time when receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom was seen as an unalloyed honor. But judging from recent articles from the Colombian press, George W. Bush seems to have significantly diminished that privilege and left President-elect Obama with yet another element of America’s image in need of burnishing.

Hot on the heels of Is Bush Honoring Uribe for Peace or for War? from Colombia’s Semana newspaper, comes this article from Colombia’s El Espectador, which calls the award a ‘consolation prize’ for Bush’s failure to have the Colombia Free Trade Agreement passed by Congress.

El Espectador’s Arlene B. Tickner writes in part:

“What could be more disgraceful for Colombia than a prize awarded by the most unpopular President in the history of the United States, and furthermore, for this to be a source of national pride? … The outgoing president has done us a feeble favor by awarding this medal to the Colombian commander in chief, however prestigious it may appear. It is an empty consolation prize and is contradictory in light of the Democratic Party’s rejection of the Free Trade Agreement.”

By Arlene B. Tickner

Translated By Douglas Myles Rasmussen

January 13, 2009

Colombia – El Espectador – Original Article (Spanish)

Unlike those who have celebrated the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom George W. Bush gave his counterpart Álvaro Uribe for his efforts to promote “democracy, human rights and peace” in the world (read: his unrestricted alliance in the war on terror), to me it seems shameful.

What could be more disgraceful for Colombia than a prize awarded by the most unpopular President in the history of the United States, and furthermore, for this to be a source of national pride?

Besides presiding over an economic and social crisis without recent precedent, the Bush government has the dubious honor of having trampled over every international rule that has ever gotten in the way of its imperial ambition, unleashing a wave of anti-Americanism around the globe.

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