21st August 2008, 11:52 PM
(This post was last modified: 22nd August 2008, 12:15 AM by A Black Falcon.)
Yes, he says it.
However, overall it's an above-average performance for him.. the questions are good (better than the questions in most political interviews, for sure...), and sometimes his answers actually answer the questions.
Full video available here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/11...18209.html
Part of the interview:
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It certainly is true that these issues are incredibly difficult... Russia invading Georgia, China's human rights record, China's support for the government of Sudan (eg. supporting the violence in Darfur), etc... the question is, on the one hand we can say "don't do that" or "that's bad" all we want, but when we're doing our own horrible things like Iraq, it gives them a slightly better excuse to ignore it than they would have otherwise.
But of course, with how they always do just ignore us when we talk about human rights, how much is the issue worth pushing? I think it is justified anyway, though it would particularly be so if we actually could hold up a higher standard on our side instead of one nearly as bad, and the Chinese government certainly doesn't like it given how they much prefer to avoid such "troubling" issues. But then the question of course becomes "well, should we follow that up with action, and if so what?"
Here Bush of course is opposed to doing anything. Either he still believes the delusion that capitalism will inevitably lead to democracy or he just doesn't care (about how China is an autocracy). I'd bet on the latter of course... but any serious actions we could take would hurt us very badly too, so there's good reason to not try them. So yes, certainly very difficult issues... it's good to see Bush actually have to answer such questions once in a while.
On the other side of course, it's notable that Costas doesn't say a word about Iraq. Asking about Darfur and Georgia while dodging our own disaster? He mostly did a good job, but it's too bad he didn't even mention it.
However, overall it's an above-average performance for him.. the questions are good (better than the questions in most political interviews, for sure...), and sometimes his answers actually answer the questions.
Full video available here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/11...18209.html
Part of the interview:
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/keN12U2coK8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/keN12U2coK8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
It certainly is true that these issues are incredibly difficult... Russia invading Georgia, China's human rights record, China's support for the government of Sudan (eg. supporting the violence in Darfur), etc... the question is, on the one hand we can say "don't do that" or "that's bad" all we want, but when we're doing our own horrible things like Iraq, it gives them a slightly better excuse to ignore it than they would have otherwise.
But of course, with how they always do just ignore us when we talk about human rights, how much is the issue worth pushing? I think it is justified anyway, though it would particularly be so if we actually could hold up a higher standard on our side instead of one nearly as bad, and the Chinese government certainly doesn't like it given how they much prefer to avoid such "troubling" issues. But then the question of course becomes "well, should we follow that up with action, and if so what?"
Here Bush of course is opposed to doing anything. Either he still believes the delusion that capitalism will inevitably lead to democracy or he just doesn't care (about how China is an autocracy). I'd bet on the latter of course... but any serious actions we could take would hurt us very badly too, so there's good reason to not try them. So yes, certainly very difficult issues... it's good to see Bush actually have to answer such questions once in a while.
On the other side of course, it's notable that Costas doesn't say a word about Iraq. Asking about Darfur and Georgia while dodging our own disaster? He mostly did a good job, but it's too bad he didn't even mention it.