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Friday, 16 January 2009, 10:30 am

Playing the Freedom Game: Bush & the Freedom Medal

Binoy Kampmark

It was the final cast of the dying days of his administration. And at its
sunset, the Presidential medal of freedom recipients were announced
by George W. Bush. Former Prime Ministers Tony Blair (Britain) and
John Howard (Australia), along with Colombian president Álvaro Uribe,
were in the East Room of the White House to receive their award.
They were greeted by a man chortling in his joy.
Given the cultivation of double-speak that has been a hallmark of all
three administrations in such matters as the ‘War on Terror’ or its
insidious twin, the ‘War on Drugs’, the award of a freedom medal to
these personalities should come as little surprise. ‘Freedom’ is
notoriously difficult to define, though it is rarely consistent with illegal
wars, control orders and obsessively keen surveillance.
That, of course, remains the instinctive argument of those who violate
laws, notably in office. Such acts were done to protect public safety.
Both Blair and Howard committed forces to an invasion of Iraq on that
premise, staking their reputations on unearthing a miracle. Once the
Former Prime Minister John Howard of Australia, smiles as
issue of safety (the weapons of mass deception) evaporated in Iraqi President George W. Bush presents him with the 2009
dust, a post-facto justification – liberation, came to the fore. The Iraqi Presidential Medal of Freedom
incursion was particularly disastrous for Blair, who was criticized for
accepting the medal in the first place. He remained mute through the proceedings, much as he had over the policies of rendition
and Guantánamo.
Both former leaders, along with Bush, have also been responsible in their respective countries for the passage of draconian laws
that have torn holes in the fabric of basic liberties. None are natural lawyers, believing that if a law is on the books, it must be legal.
On Australian radio, Howard spoke of how he was ‘honoured by [the award], more because of the compliment it pays to our
country Australia.’ People do get governments that incarnate a certain zeitgeist, and that particular creature was a nasty one. For
much of his time in office, Howard had little interest in the affairs of Australian citizens locked up in Camp X-Ray, and, like Blair,
never condemned the notion of rendition. Bush, who had affectionately baptized all Australians ‘Texans’, could be trusted to do the
right thing by those presumed ‘guilty’ thugs.
To the last, Howard remained ‘a sturdy friend in a time of need’, important enough to take precedence over the President-elect’s
family. The Obamas had to settle for the Hay-Adams Hotel instead of the customary Blair House, occupied ever so briefly by John
and wife Janette.
Stephen Kenny, the lawyer for long-time Guantánamo inmate and Australian citizen David Hicks could scarce believe the award. ‘I
think in view of what’s happened at Guantánamo Bay and John Howard’s involvement in it, I think that it is extremely regrettable
and clearly devalues the Medal of Freedom.’
If Kenny would care to see the recipients of that honour over the years, he should not be surprised. One usually mints medals in
denial – in this case, the semantic play over the existence (or non-existence) of freedom. Medals, like people’s democracies, often
affirm fictions rather than deny them.
Besides, what does a freedom medal actually entail? Robert McNamara, technocrat extraordinaire and architect of the failed war in
Vietnam received it for being a ‘brilliant analyst’. And presumably one can engender freedom and combat tyranny through
superlative baseball (Joe DiMaggio is there), something which might baffle most world citizens. Freedom, like deities, spring up in
the most mysterious ways.
In the final analysis, it is perhaps fitting that Howard and Blair, who, along with Bush, assaulted the English language in a most
brutal way while in office, substituting accepted terms for their opposites, should receive such an award. Some of their enraged
citizens would have preferred court proceedings rather than a medal ceremony. However unlikely, they may well get their wish.
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Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com