Thursday, December 01, 2005
The Unholy Alliance
I love the Wall Street Journal. If ever I need positive proof of the presence of Evil in the world, if ever I lose my way and question if I am on the low road, all I have to do is look at the Wall Street Journal. If this journal is the voice of Wall Street this is incontrovertible proof that there’s something wrong with capitalism. The most recent piece of filth published by this snot rag appeared on the Editorial Page, a vile charge against Hugo Chavez: “In seven years he has a domestic record of human rights abuses, election fraud, property confiscations a la Zimbabwe’s Mugabe, erosion of the independent judiciary, limits on press freedom and militarization.”
Seeing as the editors adduce no proof of these allegations I don’t feel it’s necessary to adduce proof to my counterargument that every single thing they said is absolutely false. They go on to explain why they are angry Chavez is offering cheap heating oil to Massachusetts, one of the ways that Chavez has thumbed his nose at the Bush Administration.
The real reason they’re angry is because Chavez has opposed U.S. free trade initiatives in the region for years, initiatives that would benefit U.S. and transnational corporations far more than they would benefit Venezuela. Most of these corporations have ample representation on Wall Street and in the Bush Administration. This is a partisan smear attack of the lowest quality.
I don’t particularly admire Chavez, though he has enacted initiatives to help the poor of his country, which is why they admire him so much. Much of Central and South America has grown disillusioned with World Bank and Wall Street requirements for loans and prescriptions for economic growth. Chavez is merely the most flamboyant representative of this group.
This is also why Pat Robertson suggested Chavez should be assassinated, which shows the unholy alliance between religious fundamentalism and the economic elite in this country. If Pat Robertson was really just teeing off on a dictator he would have chosen a truly brutal or repressive one like Kim il-Jung of North Korea or Niyazov of Turkmenistan.
This disgusting alliance is the throbbing, fundamentalist heart of the GOP. These are the people who, while selectively targeting foreign leaders for invasion and vilification, choose to ignore the far more egregious examples. The reason is simple: they are not overly concerned with human rights violations; they are primarily concerned with geopolitical power. This is why they cite Iraq’s defiance of U.N. resolutions while ignoring the more numerous examples in Morocco and Israel. This is why they (now) are suddenly very critical of Saddam Hussein’s butchery of his civilians, while they ignore worse slaughter in Turkey. Years after Hussein’s use of chemical weapons against his own populace, Bush Sr. lifted sanctions on Iraq in 1989. Now we want to try him for war crimes based on these same events.
It’s surprising what a few years will do to our opinion of a dictator’s oppression, isn’t it? When we needed Hussein as a counterbalance to fundamentalist Iran he was our best friend. Now he’s trash. As long as we need Turkey as an important ally in the Middle East you won’t see the Wall Street Journal lambasting their butchery of tens of thousands of Kurds in the nineties. As long as they feel the same way about Israel we won’t see exposés on Israel’s assassinations of militants, bulldozing of homes of suspected militants, oppressive policing of Palestinian roads and towns, and seizure of West Bank territory. The list goes on, and on, and on. Don’t take my word for it: google Morocco’s history, or Iran’s history under the Shah, or Indonesia’s genocide in Timor and elsewhere, or Uzbekistan’s current spate of brutality.
These are the same people who, in the Nixon administration, decided that “peace with honor” meant the wholesale annihilation of millions of Vietnamese civilians. That August Pinochet would be a better ruler of Chile than Allende.
These are the same people who advised Ford and Kissinger when they visited Indonesia and gave a green light to Suharto to begin the massacre.
These are the same people who, as members of Ronald Reagan’s Administration, engineered his “Southern Strategy.” His refusal to embargo racist South Africa. His Central American policy. His invasion of Grenada and funding of the death squads of El Salvador.
They are not pro-life. They are not “compassionate.” They are not concerned with democracy, life, fairness, or justice. They do not believe in a “Culture of Life.” They are “Conservatives.” They are the editors of the Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune. They are “Conservative” talk-show hosts and TV personalities. They are, sadly enough, the people who elected these monsters and who listen to these outlets of disinformation. They are the CIA. They are the U.S. military. They are the President of the United States.
We, as Americans, must undergo an expiation of collective guilt reminiscent of Germany in the 1950s to begin the healing process. We must recognize what we have done wrong before we can ever prevent it from happening again.
Seeing as the editors adduce no proof of these allegations I don’t feel it’s necessary to adduce proof to my counterargument that every single thing they said is absolutely false. They go on to explain why they are angry Chavez is offering cheap heating oil to Massachusetts, one of the ways that Chavez has thumbed his nose at the Bush Administration.
The real reason they’re angry is because Chavez has opposed U.S. free trade initiatives in the region for years, initiatives that would benefit U.S. and transnational corporations far more than they would benefit Venezuela. Most of these corporations have ample representation on Wall Street and in the Bush Administration. This is a partisan smear attack of the lowest quality.
I don’t particularly admire Chavez, though he has enacted initiatives to help the poor of his country, which is why they admire him so much. Much of Central and South America has grown disillusioned with World Bank and Wall Street requirements for loans and prescriptions for economic growth. Chavez is merely the most flamboyant representative of this group.
This is also why Pat Robertson suggested Chavez should be assassinated, which shows the unholy alliance between religious fundamentalism and the economic elite in this country. If Pat Robertson was really just teeing off on a dictator he would have chosen a truly brutal or repressive one like Kim il-Jung of North Korea or Niyazov of Turkmenistan.
This disgusting alliance is the throbbing, fundamentalist heart of the GOP. These are the people who, while selectively targeting foreign leaders for invasion and vilification, choose to ignore the far more egregious examples. The reason is simple: they are not overly concerned with human rights violations; they are primarily concerned with geopolitical power. This is why they cite Iraq’s defiance of U.N. resolutions while ignoring the more numerous examples in Morocco and Israel. This is why they (now) are suddenly very critical of Saddam Hussein’s butchery of his civilians, while they ignore worse slaughter in Turkey. Years after Hussein’s use of chemical weapons against his own populace, Bush Sr. lifted sanctions on Iraq in 1989. Now we want to try him for war crimes based on these same events.
It’s surprising what a few years will do to our opinion of a dictator’s oppression, isn’t it? When we needed Hussein as a counterbalance to fundamentalist Iran he was our best friend. Now he’s trash. As long as we need Turkey as an important ally in the Middle East you won’t see the Wall Street Journal lambasting their butchery of tens of thousands of Kurds in the nineties. As long as they feel the same way about Israel we won’t see exposés on Israel’s assassinations of militants, bulldozing of homes of suspected militants, oppressive policing of Palestinian roads and towns, and seizure of West Bank territory. The list goes on, and on, and on. Don’t take my word for it: google Morocco’s history, or Iran’s history under the Shah, or Indonesia’s genocide in Timor and elsewhere, or Uzbekistan’s current spate of brutality.
These are the same people who, in the Nixon administration, decided that “peace with honor” meant the wholesale annihilation of millions of Vietnamese civilians. That August Pinochet would be a better ruler of Chile than Allende.
These are the same people who advised Ford and Kissinger when they visited Indonesia and gave a green light to Suharto to begin the massacre.
These are the same people who, as members of Ronald Reagan’s Administration, engineered his “Southern Strategy.” His refusal to embargo racist South Africa. His Central American policy. His invasion of Grenada and funding of the death squads of El Salvador.
They are not pro-life. They are not “compassionate.” They are not concerned with democracy, life, fairness, or justice. They do not believe in a “Culture of Life.” They are “Conservatives.” They are the editors of the Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune. They are “Conservative” talk-show hosts and TV personalities. They are, sadly enough, the people who elected these monsters and who listen to these outlets of disinformation. They are the CIA. They are the U.S. military. They are the President of the United States.
We, as Americans, must undergo an expiation of collective guilt reminiscent of Germany in the 1950s to begin the healing process. We must recognize what we have done wrong before we can ever prevent it from happening again.
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 12:38 AM 
