Supporting Democracy...When it's convenient

From the Washington Post:

Not all rebellions against tyranny are created equal, it seems.

When the people of Ukraine took to the streets to overturn a rigged election, U.S. officials hailed the Orange Revolution.

When the Lebanese public rose up against Syrian occupation, a U.S. State Department official dubbed the movement the Cedar Revolution.

But when popular protests in the Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan were violently crushed over the weekend by the government of President Islam Karimov, the Bush White House responded not with a media-genic brand name but with a mild statement urging both sides to show restraint.

Of course no-one not blinded to BushCorp™'s routine brand of self-serving sloganeering is surprised by this turn of events. Calls for Democracy and Freedom apply solely when it suits Bush's perceived short term strategic interests.

Want to increase the availablilty of local markets to US interests? Up the Orange Revolution!

Want to discomfit a recalcitrant rogue nation? Syria out of Lebanon! Go Cedar Revolution!

Want to maintain a US military presence in an authoritarian regime? Want to maintain relations with your islamic fundamentalist petroleum pusher? BushCorp™'s near silence truly deafens.

The latest episode in Uzbekistan demonstrates yet again BushCorp™'s hypocrisy, and further underscores the reasons for the US' lack of credibility in much of the world.

It's the logical corollary to Bush's "with us or against us" rhetoric: if the US isn't with you, then it's against you. And that's a lesson the world has long since learned.