Wednesday, February 16, 2010
Where’s the American Outrage
against U.S. Support of Dictatorships?
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Once it became clear that Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak was on the way
out, U.S. officials quickly shifted gears and took the side of the
demonstrators, the people who had suffered for 30 years under the brutal
Mubarak dictatorship. U.S. officials even offered their guidance for
moving Egypt toward a democratic political system.
Of course, all this pro-democracy hoopla was designed to disguise the
fact that the U.S. government has been the prime partner and enabler of
this brutal dictatorship for the entire 30 years under which the Egyptian
people have suffered. It has been the U.S. government that has been
providing the $60 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to Mubarak and his
henchmen in the Egyptian military and secret police. It has been the U.S.
government that has been paying the salaries of Egypt’s jailors and
torturers for the past three decades. It is the U.S. military that has
been training the Egyptian military.
In fact, it’s actually worse than that. Believe it or not, U.S. officials
actually cut a deal with Egypt’s torturers to torture people on behalf of
the U.S. government. The deal called for the U.S. government to bring
people into Egypt, where they would be tortured for information or
confession, with the understanding that Mubarak would publicly deny that
the prisoners would be tortured.
In that way, U.S. officials could proclaim, “We’re shocked that our
prisoner has been tortured because they promised that they wouldn’t
torture him.” Of course, it was all a sham, one that would enable U.S.
officials to deceitfully express shock over the torture, acquire the
information or confession with torture, and then secretly thank their
Egyptian partners for employing their torture expertise on their behalf.
The torture deal was a testament to the U.S. government’s partnerships
with dictatorships.
Supporters of the U.S. Empire might respond, “But Jacob, the U.S.
government’s longtime support of the Mubarak dictatorship is an exception
because the U.S. government is an exceptional government.”
Well, then explain this paragraph from an article about Yemen in
yesterday’s
New York Times: “Yemen, one of the poorest nations in the
Middle East, has become a cause of concern for the United States as the
protests have spread because Mr. Saleh has supported the fight against
the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda.”
In other words, here’s another U.S.-supported dictator in the Middle
East, one who has been in power as long as Mubarak30 years! And the U.S.
government, which pro-empire advocates say is exceptional, has been
partnering with him, just as it did with Mubarak.
What’s the rationale for the U.S. government’s support of this brutal
dictatorship in Yemen? The Yemen dictator has served as a loyal partner
in the U.S. Empire’s war on terrorism against al Qaeda. And, as everyone
knows, the war on terrorism trumps everything else. As in Egypt, Tunisia,
and elsewhere, it doesn’t matter how much U.S.-supported dictators
oppress, torture, rape, and brutalize their own people. All that matters
is that they are loyal members of the Empire, especially when it comes to
the war on terrorism.
The irony, of course, is that it is the U.S. Empire’s support of
dictatorships in the Middle East that is one of the principal motivations
of al Qaeda and other anti-American groups in the Middle East (along with
the U.S. Empire’s presence and meddling in the Middle East, including its
unconditional financial and military support of the Israeli government).
So, the U.S. government supports the brutal dictatorships that oppress
their own people, which inspires anger and rage not only against the
dictatorship but also against the United States, which the U.S.
government then uses as a justification for its support of the
dictatorship. How’s that for empire logic? And when that anger and hatred
materializes in terrorist retaliation against the United States, U.S.
officials then use that to justify the same type of anti-terrorist
measures against the American people that are employed in the brutal
dictatorships that they’re supporting.
The solution to this morass of evil is obvious: The American people
should require their government to cease all support for dictatorships
(and every other foreign regime). They should require their government to
dismantle its overseas military empire and bring all the troops home and
discharge them. They should prohibit their government from meddling in
the affairs of other nations.
With this solution, not only would the anger and hatred against the
United States dissipate, the termination of foreign aid would also help
alleviate the impending bankruptcy of the United States arising from
out-of-control federal spending. Moreover, a principal justification for
the U.S. government’s adoption of the type of anti-terrorist measures
that are inherent in foreign dictatorships would be removed.
Hasn’t the time arrived for the American people to confront the
wrongdoing of their government, much as people in the Middle East are
confronting the wrongdoing of their governments? It’s great that
Americans are celebrating the toppling of dictators in the Middle East.
But my question is: When are Americans going to be become as angry and
outraged over their own government’s support of dictatorships as the
people who have had to suffer under such dictatorships?
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2011-02-16.asp
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- Wheres the American Outrage against U.S. Support of Dictatorships? MJ
