U.N. Gathering: Theater of Insults
Sept. 23, 2006 — -- First, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez this week referred to President Bush as "the devil" on the floor of the United Nations. Then in New York's Harlem neighborhood, he branded Bush "an alcoholic and a sick man."
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinijad was less personal, but no less brutal in his judgment of the Bush administration, calling it an aggressive violator of international law.
Washington Post reporter Robin Wright called the verbal back-and-forth shrewd -- shrewd, perhaps because of the attention leaders get here and back home, on what may be the world's biggest stage.
It's not the first time a political leader has chosen to use the U.N.'s podium to get their most fervent ideas across.
"The United Nations and the General Assembly in particular is theater. It's about theater for local consumption," said Thomas G. Weiss, political science professor at the City University of New York.
It was almost 50 years ago that Fidel Castro stood before the U.N. and called then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy "an illiterate and ignorant millionaire."
In 1960, during one of the most famous events in Cold War history, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev expressed his anger by pounding the desk with his fists.
Leaders like Manuel Noriega of Panama have used the podium to fight back when the U.S. tried to force him from power.
Of course, such larger than life, politically incorrect behavior doesn't only take place at the U.N. Back in Venezuela, Chavez has blasted president Bush before, saying, among other things, "You are a donkey, Mr. Bush."
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