Thursday, March 27, 2008

short-sighted US foreign policy

SOA-American Foreign Policy


We commit, allow and turn our backs away from many atrocities because we want to better our position in the third world. Our government puts the best spin on these episodes whenever they see the light of day and claim it’s all in an effort to fight radical Islam. But are we truly any better when we endorse the same human rights abuses as our foes? Does it matter what side of the fence the bullet came from when you lie dying?

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Friendly Dictators

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

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Personally, I suspect the fight against Muslim fundamentalism is more often a fight for economic influence disguised as a fight for freedom. When we support a country whose government mutilates human rights we hand an ideological victory and propaganda tools for insurrectionists to use against us. Where they suppress speech we should encourage it. Where they use violence we should react with kindness, food and medical care.


We should never provide military assistance or have friendly diplomatic ties with any country that violates the civil liberties of its citizens.


For example, we have close economic ties with China whose benefits evidently carry more weight than the blood spilled by democracy loving students or the freedom and human rights we say we cherish so deeply. Policies such as this soil the Stars and Stripes far more than any match.


June 4, 1989, Tienanmen Square Massacre


It is immoral to keep a people held hostage under a dictator or totalitarian system by providing the weapons and money needed to stay in power, then turn around and wage war against these same people because the same tyrannical government becomes unacceptable. This situation in Panama left hundreds if not thousands of civilians dead. We face the same situation in Iraq. This makes the war and its subsequent occupation immoral and any targeting, careless or otherwise, of noncombatants is sinful.


This wasn’t a just war. Our past involvement in the region has us holding much of the blame for the conditions which led to this fiasco. The people of Iraq, who were held hostage by US supported Saddam Hussein for many years, were victimized by him……and now they have been victimized by the United States. Possessing the ability to carry out a decisive military invasion and regime change does not justify our actions; rather the results vividly illustrate the moral bankruptcy of war.


Lies of the US on Iraq




Our lack of Neocon encouraged national patience spread devastation across the region. The people of Iraq have suffered extensive physical damage and loss of life into the tens of thousands if not a million.

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contradicting administration propaganda on Iraq

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Our men and women have been spilling their blood in the sand because we have no energy policy. The Reagan administration abandoned all of President Carter’s energy programs and our dependence on foreign oil has increased ever since. The oil companies have fought every incentive for decreasing our dependence on foreign oil with the exception of endangering priceless wilderness areas in the US and now our troops are protecting their interests and our gluttonous appetite for black gold. This war is about money, greed, power of the elite and foreign oil consumption.





Too often it seems many hawks in this country view world relations as a football game, us against them, with absolutely no consideration of how we arrived in our present situation and to whether our conduct was and is ethical or in the best interests of all parties involved. If you raise any questions or concerns about how your team plays the game, you are branded as unloyal or traitorous. The other team is dehumanized to ease our feelings as we ‘tromp’ them.


International policy is not a game. We must truthfully analyze our government and corporation involvement throughout the world, past, present and future. We were once taught that when we travel into another country we are all ambassadors for America and that should include the business community.

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Vulture Funds; why they hate us.

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War Is Not A Game

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Barack Obama's Foreign Policy

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/foreignpolicy/


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