TORONTO, Jan 21 (AFP) - Canadian pundits peered warily across the US border on Friday with a mix of trepidation and scepticism after President George W. Bush`s inaugural vow to spread American-style "freedom" around the world.
"If Bush is serious and not merely indulging in inaugural rhetoric, he has put the US on another combative course in his second term," warned the Toronto Star, the country`s largest newspaper.
The paper advised Bush to stabilise Afghanistan and Iraq, previous targets of US military action, before turning his attention elsewhere.
"Far from being shining examples of `Made in America` democracy, both risk becoming collapsed states, breeding grounds for more terror, unless Bush manages to turn things around before he quits office," it said.
The Globe and Mail newspaper conceded that Bush was serious about spreading democracy, despite criticism from those who highlight that US allies like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia hardly qualify as pluralistic states.
But the paper also rebuked Bush for taking a selective approach to democracy.
The United States "mutes its criticism of China`s repressive political system because China has played ball in the war on terror and because American businesses want to make money there," it said.
Bush is highly unpopular in Canada, according to many opinion surveys, and politically, the country has far more in common with social democracies in Europe than the current conservative administration in Washington.
But there was a warm welcome for Bush`s comments in the National Post, which often adopts positions to the right of other Canadian newspapers.
Columnist Robert Fulford described Bush`s speech Thursday as "one of the great inauguration speeches of American history."
And he concurred with Bush`s view that only by exporting freedom and US-style democracy could the United States safeguard its own security.
"The Americans are lucky, the world is lucky, that the American president at this moment is a man who deeply understands the great issue of the age."
The French-language Journal de Montreal saw Bush`s speech as less a roadmap for future action than a bid to defend his decision to invade Iraq.
"It was clear that in invoking freedom, he was attempting to justify a war which, for the majority of US citizens, was not worth the 1,360 American deaths or the cost of 100 billion dollars at the last count," one of the paper`s top columnists wrote.
Another newspaper, Le Devoir, poked fun at Bush, leading its front page with a picture of the president under the headline "The coronation of King George," noting that Bush mentioned the word "freedom" 49 times in 16 minutes.
01/21/2005 18:18 GMT - AFP