Aah, the cradle of civilization. There were democracies in the Middle East before while white Europeans still killed each other with clubs, long before anybody thought there was a new land to conquer. Yet, in the modern era, freedom in the Middle East is hard to find. Very hard to find, indeed. You would expect that the United States would be delighted to help reignite the flame of freedom in the region, wouldn’t you?
Afghanistan
Azerbaijan
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Turkey
Uzbekistan
After the Mujahedeen drove the Russian army out of the country, did the CIA help support the creation of a stable infrastructure and democratic processes? …NAAAAHH! The US abandoned Afghanistan, creating a fertile ground for terrorist recruitment and operations.
IIham Aliyev, son of the now deceased authoritarian ruler, Heydar Aliyev, was elected president of Azerbaijan last October 15 in an election condemned by international monitors as rigged. How did the democracy loving American government respond? With several state visits and military and development aid funds. And, why not? If there’s one thing President Bush truly understands, it’s the power of a family dynasty.
In 1953, the CIA backed a coup that removed Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. For the next 25 years, the US supported the Shah’s despotically brutal dictatorship. “Operation Ajax” cleaned and scoured, all right, with theocratic revolution the ultimate result.
In Iraq? Are you even trying to win this game, kids? The Americans took Iraq off the official list of terrorist states in 1982 and supported Saddam Hussein through his worst atrocities, which, like Claude Raines in Casablanca, they were later shocked, shocked I say, to discover. Take that, you useless Kurds!
The military is the tail that wags the dog and politicians manipulate fear to keep the population in line. Sound like home? Nope – it’s just another day in the democratic state of Israel. Did we say democratic? Congratulations – you’ve won! (Of course, the rest of the world’s another matter…)
Take one military dictator, add nuclear arms and support for terrorists and what do you get? Did you answer: an invasion? Well, if you’re General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, you actually get military and financial support in exchange for supporting the war on Iraq! Suh-weet!
Fun fact: 16 of the 19 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, as is Osama bin Laden. Yet, the Bush family has been protecting the despotic Saudi oil sheiks for, well, ever, to the point of spiriting them out of the country days after 9/11. Sorry, no support for democracy here.
The United States backed the democratically elected government of Syria…right up until it supported a military coup in 1949, plunging the country into a period of violent instability. With friends like this…
You know how the US used repression of the Kurdish minority as an after-the-fact pretext to invade Iraq? Well! While Turkey’s repressive regime was repressing IT’S Kurdish minority, the Clinton government was allowing hundreds of millions of dollars in arms sales to the regime, and not an American invasion in sight!
Big Brother lives in Uzbekistan! However, the country is rich in gold, uranium and natural gas, and willing to sell out to the highest bidder, AND it supported the American war on Afghanistan. Who would want to upset such a sweet deal as that with talk of nasty old human rights?”