IN A particularly nasty outburst of demagoguery, Pat Robertson, the American TV evangelist and founder of the Conservative Coalition which helped George W. Bush become president, has called on the United States to assassinate Mr. Hugo Chavez, President of the Republic of Venezuela.
But few persons who have followed his public pronouncements over the years should be surprised. It is typical of his right-wing zealotry clothed in religious garb.
We might easily dismiss his comments as that of an exuberant partisan or a xenophobic preacher but for the fact that persons who share his narrow perspective on the rest of the world have gained an increasingly influential foothold in the shaping of American foreign policy.
Jamaicans are right to take umbrage at this outrageous suggestion, especially since it was made just ahead of President Chavez's official visit to the island for the purpose of offering us oil at concessionary prices. By way of a slap on the wrist, the U.S. State Department characterised this statement as "unhelpful" but Mr. Robertson remains unapologetic on the basis that an assassination is more cost-effective than going to war with Venezuela.
One does not have to hold a brief for some of Mr. Chavez's ideological positions to condemn the Robertson suggestion as immoral and dangerous. It assumes that the end, no matter how subjective, justifies any means and denigrates the United States to the very terrorist status it claims to be opposing in Iraq. It is also illegal. Some years ago, after the unsuccessful attempt to kill Fidel Castro, the U.S. Congress passed a law forbidding the assassination of the head of state of a foreign nation. Such a law is in keeping with the idealism of the U.S. Constitution which, unfortunately, is more often honoured in the breach than in the observance.
As an evangelist with his own television network supplying 'news', Mr. Robertson commands the support and loyalty of millions of Americans and he is a powerful voice in the Republican party. We hope, however, that the majority of decent Americans will see his bellicose statement as yet another example of wars being promoted in the name of religion. President Chavez has brushed aside Mr. Robertson's cynical proposition, but the damage to America's image abroad will not be so easily erased. In reality, Mr. Robertson may merely be expressing what his colleague Republicans have been talking about quietly - in which case he was being more prescient than prophetic.
Dare we hope that Washington will allow the people of Venezuela to sort out their political problems by themselves? That would be expecting too much of the present Bush administration.
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