"It is the U.S. government, whose
officials are now offering their democracy-guidance services to the
Egyptian people, who is co-responsible for the oppression and the tyranny
under which the Egyptian people have been suffering for the last 30
years. It is you -- the U.S. government, including the Congress, the
president, the Pentagon, and the CIA -- who are the enabler, the partner,
the co-oppressor, the co-tyrant."
Monday, February 12, 2010
Dictatorship and Torture Are
American Values
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Count on U.S. officials, from Obama on down, along with their
conservative supporters, to bring some hilarity into the events occurring
in Egypt. Don’t you just love watching them on television providing their
advice and counsel to the Egyptian people on how to achieve democracy and
offering their guidance for the future?
“This is Earth calling the U.S. government. Come in, U.S. government.”
Hey, dudes, have you so quickly forgotten the role that the U.S.
government has played in the tyrannical regime that the Egyptian people
have risked to lives to resist? It was you people and your predecessors
who propped up the dictatorship against which the Egyptian people finally
revolted. It was you people who have been paying the salaries of the
dictator himself and his team of oppressors and torturers for 30 years.
It was the U.S. government that was purchasing the tear gas canisters and
bullets. It was you people who were providing the instruments of torture
that the Mubarak regime used against the people. It was you who were
funding the dictator’s secret police. It was you who were training and
arming his military. It was you who were partnering with his torture team
to torture people on behalf of your own torture team, the CIA, so that
U.S. officials could deceitfully say to the American people, “We are an
exceptional government because we don’t torture.”
It is the U.S. government, whose officials are now offering their
democracy-guidance services to the Egyptian people, who is co-responsible
for the oppression and the tyranny under which the Egyptian people have
been suffering for the last 30 years. It is you -- the U.S. government,
including the Congress, the president, the Pentagon, and the CIA -- who
are the enabler, the partner, the co-oppressor, the co-tyrant.
You knew what the Egyptian tyrants were doing to their own people. You
watched them. You assisted them. You supported them. You gave them, year
after year, the billions of dollars in U.S.-taxpayer money that paid for
it all.
And what was your rationale? “Our interests.” According to you, all that
torture, oppression, brutality, and tyranny, while no doubt
“regrettable,” was necessary to protect “our interests.”
Don’t forget that your mindset was no different when your brutal
sanctions contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi
children for more 10 years. As your ambassador to the United Nations put
it, the deaths of all those innocent children were “worth it.” After all,
“our interests” were at stakes!
And now, you have the gall to offer your democracy-spreading guidance and
advice to the victims of the oppression, torture, brutality, and terror
that you supported and enabled for 30 years. Have you no shame at all,
especially given the fact that you are simultaneously lamenting and
grieving over the loss of a “good friend,” one who was willing to torture
anyone on your behalf whenever he was asked, and, even better, deny that
he was doing it? You’re right: It’s not easy to find a good friend like
that. No wonder you’re so sad about his loss of power.
One question, President Obama: If victims of Mubarak’s U.S.-supported
oppression and tyranny retaliate with a terrorist attack against the
United States for the U.S. government’s having knowingly participated in
the oppression and tyranny in Egypt, will you respond in the same way
that President Bush responded after the 9/11 attacks, with the assertion,
“The terrorists just hate us for our values”?
If so, you will be speaking the truth because thanks to the U.S.
government, dictatorship and torture are American values.
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2011-02-14.asp
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