Bush Speech to OAS Falls Flat

President Bush had the honor of welcoming delegates to the Organization of American States to their annual meeting last week, which was held in Florida. It’s the first time since the mid-1970s that the United States has hosted the OAS.

Bush’s speech was disappointing and troubling. Based on what he said during that speech, it appears that he is not done sending the U.S. military in to liberate other countries from themselves. He proposed monitoring threats to democracy in the Americas and having other neighboring democracies intervene when democratic principals are threatened in any OAS member nation.

This is coming across as cowboy diplomacy from President Bush. He has two jobs to finish off (Iraq and Afghanistan), BEFORE getting us into a military confrontation anywhere else.

Bush should convince the OAS to isolate offending nations instead of convincing their neighbors to invade under the pretext of preserving democracy. His current proposal is meeting heavy resistance in Central and South America. Here’s why:

Nicaragua—invaded five times by U.S. military, including a 10 year occupation.
Panama—invaded sixteen times by U.S. military
Honduras—invaded five times by the U.S. military
Dominican Republic—invaded five times by the U.S. military, including an 8 year occupation.
Cuba—invaded five times by the U.S. military
Guatemala—invaded six times by the U.S. military
Granada—invaded once by the U.S. military
El Salvador—invaded once by the U.S. military
Argentina—invaded once by the U.S. military
Haiti—invaded twice by the U.S. military, including a 19 year occupation.

Latin America doesn’t want more help with their internal affairs from the U.S. government. This is why governments friendly to the U.S. are opposing Bush's proposal. They are agreed that democracy does need to be encouraged, but use of military force should be the measure of last resort, not the first, in Latin America.

The U.S. needs to be encouraging more diplomacy, not more military adventures. There's enough military stuff going on in the world as it is.