PRESIDENT BUSH’S pledge to spread freedom to the darkest corners of the Earth has been greeted with scepticism at home and hostility abroad.

The day after he vowed to work towards ending tyranny, analysts questioned how his rhetoric meshed with the realities of US economic and military interests. In its pursuit of the War on Terror, the US depends economically, logistically or politically on at least six countries that could fall into the category of “oppressors”: Russia, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. “The US is closing its eyes towards dictators who serve its own interests, but attacks those that damage it,” Abdul Hussein Shaaban, an Iraqi analyst, said.

Mr Bush opened his second term with a striking adjustment of US foreign policy, placing the spread of human freedoms and democracy at its core. It was the latest evolution of the “Bush doctrine” that emerged after the September 11 attacks when he warned nations they were “with us or against us” in the War on Terror. But it was the first time Mr Bush had argued that the spread of democracy was “vital” to American interests without linking it specifically to the War on Terror.

If he tries to live up to his words, the speech will radically change many of Washington’s relationships around the world. The US receives 20 per cent of its oil imports from Saudi Arabia, a critical strategic ally. Yet the State Department states that the kingdom is guilty of “prohibitions or severe restrictions on the freedoms of speech, press, peaceful assembly and association, and religion; denial of the right of citizens to change their government; systematic discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities; and suppression of workers’ rights”.

Egypt is second only to Israel in the amount of US aid it receives and a critical US ally in the Middle East peace process. But President Mubarak presides over limits on freedom of speech and retains a veto on which groups receive the $2 billion annual American aid.

The US renewed arms sales to Pakistan after President Musharraf joined the War on Terror. But General Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup, and the US has put him under only minimal pressure for reneging on a pledge to step down as head of the military.

“Uzbekistan is not a democracy and does not have a free press,” says the State Department. Yet Washington signed a declaration of “strategic partnership” with Uzbekistan after it allowed the US to pitch a military base on its soil ahead of the 2001 Afghanistan war.

Washington sees China as a major trading partner, and has been highly diplomatic towards Beijing, yet a State Department profile lists human rights abuses as “arbitrary and lengthy incommunicado detention, forced confessions, torture, and mistreatment of prisoners”.

Next month Mr Bush meets Mr Putin, who has been a US ally in the War on Terror; and Mr Bush has all but turned a blind eye to Russian atrocities in Chechnya. He has said that Mr Putin was a man he could do business with. That was before Mr Putin tried to influence the Ukrainian elections away from the pro-Western winner.

Even Republican supporters cautioned that Mr Bush may have overreached himself by promising to put pressure on “every ruler and every nation”. Michael Rubin, who used to work for Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said that “the speech was great but it can do more harm than good” if Mr Bush fails to follow through.

GOOD FRIENDS?

Amnesty International’s verdict last year on:

Saudi Arabia: “Gross human rights violations continued and were exacerbated by government ‘anti-terrorism’ policies and acts of violence. Hundreds of suspected religious activists, critics of the state and protesters were arrested or detained. Torture and ill-treatment remained rife.”

China: “Tens of thousands of people continued to be detained or imprisoned in violation of their rights to freedom of expression and association, and were at serious risk of torture or ill-treatment. China continued to use the international ‘war against terrorism’ as a pretext for cracking down on peaceful dissent.”

Russia: “Security forces continued to enjoy almost total impunity for serious violations of human rights committed in the Chechen Republic. Elsewhere there were continuing reports of torture and ill-treatment.”

Uzbekistan: “At least 6,000 political prisoners, who included dozens of women, continued to be held in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions. Hundreds of people suspected of political or religious dissent were harassed, beaten and detained without trial, Torture was reported to have resulted in the death of at least three men in custody.”

Egypt: “Thousands of suspected supporters of banned Islamist groups remained in detention without charge or trial. Torture of detainees continued to be systematic.”

. . . and what Mr Bush promised:

“We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: the moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right.

“America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.

“We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people.”

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