Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, created outrage across the United States last week by slinging insults at U.S. president George W. Bush in a speech at the United Nations in New York.

Angered by Bush’s flawed foreign policies, Chavez called the American president “the devil” and accused him of leaving behind a stench at the U.N. podium.

American politicians and media voices, many themselves Bush critics, howled indignantly. How dare a foreign leader come to their land and denounce their president?

These Americans need the maturity to allow others the same freedom of speech they claim for themselves. More national leaders talking honestly about and to Bush, whose misdeeds create global problems, would make the world a better, safer place.

Hardly an innocent bystander, Bush loves calling names too. He likens his “enemies” to Adolf Hitler and imagines an Axis of Evil. Yet which nation launches invasions and operates secret prisons?

No, Bush isn’t “the devil”, only an imitator. But if leaders and diplomats aren’t welcome to speak forthrightly in the United Nations and its environs, then the U.N. should move its headquarters to a more suitable location. Why not Paris, Moscow or the Venezuelan capital, Caracas?

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