Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
When “Good” Dictators Go Bad
A standard zigzag of political rhetoric went for a jaunt along Pennsylvania Avenue on Tuesday (Feb. 15) with a speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at George Washington University. “Iran is awful because it is a government that routinely violates the rights of its people,” she declared. During the last few weeks, much has changed in the politics of the Middle East -- but not much has changed in the politics of Washington, where policymakers turn phrases on a dime.
The currency is doublespeak, antithetical to a single standard of human rights.
And so, the secretary of state condemns awful Iran, invoking “our sense of human dignity, the rights that flow from it and the principles that ground it.” But don’t hold your breath for any such condemnation of, say, Saudi Arabia -- surely an “awful” government that “routinely violates the rights of its people.”
It wasn’t long ago that Hosni Mubarak’s regime -- with all its repression and torture -- enjoyed high esteem and lavish praise in Washington. For Egyptians, the repression and torture went on; for the bipartisan savants running U.S. foreign policy, the suppression was good geopolitics.
As recently as Jan. 27, when Joe Biden appeared on the “PBS NewsHour,” the official U.S. line about the despot of Egypt was enough to make Orwell’s coffin spin. Was it time for Mubarak to go? “No,” Biden replied. “I think the time has come for President Mubarak to begin to move in the direction that -- to be more responsive to some . . . of the needs of the people out there.”
The interviewer, Jim Lehrer, is hardly a tough questioner of red-white-and-blue officialdom, but he did press the vice president on whether Mubarak was a dictator. Biden replied: “Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And he’s been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts; the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with -- with Israel. . . . I would not refer to him as a dictator.”
Secretary of State Clinton is correct when she says that Iran’s regime is “awful.” I caught a glimpse six years ago, at Tehran University, when police and Basij thugs broke up a peaceful demonstration for women’s rights. Over lunch one day, an Iranian talked about the torture of friends in prison and described the people in charge as “monsters.” These days, the repression in Iran is far worse.
Meanwhile, the torture of political prisoners in Saudi Arabia is no less horrific -- while the U.S. government’s winks and nods toward the Saudi regime are no less pernicious today than they were for decades while Mubarak’s henchmen did their foul deeds in Egypt. In both cases, the cruelty has been OK with Washington since it has been perpetrated by (cue Biden) “an ally of ours in a number of things” that has been “very responsible . . . relative to geopolitical interest in the region.”
On the same day as Clinton’s selectively righteous speech blasting an awful regime in the Middle East, my colleagues at RootsAction launched “An Open Letter to the People of Egypt.” [ http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6503/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3369 ]
“From the United States, we watched as you stood up for democracy, faced huge obstacles and used nonviolent action to depose a dictator,” the letter says. “We send you our congratulations and appreciation for showing us -- and people all over the planet -- the power of mobilized humanity in the quest for justice and freedom.”
The letter adds: “As Americans, we have a responsibility to reset U.S. government policies in Egypt and the entire region. Last week, thousands of us signed a letter [ http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6503/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3264 ] demanding that Obama apologize for our country’s three decades of support for the Mubarak regime. Now, in the absence of a presidential apology, we take it upon ourselves to apologize. We resolve to work for human rights in solidarity with you, calling for a swift transition for democracy in Egypt. We intend to work so that U.S. foreign policy truly becomes aligned with the values of democracy and human rights.”
Signing the open letter [ http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6503/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3369 ] is a statement of solidarity with pro-democracy movements -- and a rejection of Washington’s ongoing double standard on human rights. But our words won’t accomplish much unless we match them with effective political organizing in the days and years ahead.
30 Comments so far
Show AllYou can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. Americans are easily fooled by the puppet dictators our government and media prop up, but in this age of internet, and our world where economic models have made English such a common language throughout the world, to many people have information and share it, so that eventually the truth gets out. There are places where the truth does not lead to change because of the oppressive policy of the government, but Egypt demonstrated that when enough people know the truth it is very difficult to suppress. I only hope that Americans will develop a hunger for the truth, and the disinformation spread by our government and media will lose it's grip on our nation.
==During a speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at George Washington University she declared: “Iran is awful because it is a government that routinely violates the rights of its people”.==
At that point, the students should have gotten to their feet and walked out of the auditorium. Any student of George Washington University who does not realize that the government(s) of the United States =routinely violate the rights of its people= should not be granted an academic diploma.
Trylon
More than walk out, our duplicitous "leaders" should be verbally rebuked, they should be heckled off the stage. We have to take away the falsely embedded respect that our politicians are granted based solely on their status. We must pressure them, publicly, unapologetically, to reconcile their rhetoric w/ their anti-democratic actions & policies.
Trylon...
Anyone walking out or in disagreement with the 'Official Lies' of Wash. DC will have whatever career they imagined go up in flames...especially the students. Word circulates thru the faculty that so-and-so is an agitator/non-compliant...and all the lovely insider perks of internships at Wall Street brokerage houses disappear... or apprenticeships at Dc law firms. Your career is finished! Where do you think a young budding Eichmann of Empire would find him/herself if walking out on the Whore of Empire?
Hitlery doesn't give speeches at Uni's as this for laughs...she's a recruiter for the next generation of Eichmann's.
Bad dictator=any strong man (popular or not) who interferes with the operations of any US business. Also any person who is disliked by the US Chamber of Commerce.
Good dictator=any strong man (usually unpopular) who allows US businesses to rape and pillage at will.
ppeters -
Add to that the sometimes wrinkle that "good" dictators comply with the agenda of their CIA funding conduits, and "bad" dictators sometimes bite the hand that feeds them.
I wonder how Manuel Noreiga is doing today, doing his time.
And of course we all know what happened to Saddam.
Bill from Saginaw
way to go norm, fix it from the inside.
develop your message, your logo and a simple memorable campaign slogan.
once a broken reed...
he will make a ideal democrat, blowing in the wind
a person or thing conceived as embodying such a conception or conforming to such a standard, and taken as a model for imitation
Good on ya...old crow!!
From the article:
The letter adds: “As Americans, we have a responsibility to reset U.S. government policies in Egypt and the entire region. Last week, thousands of us signed a letter [ http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6503/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3264 ] demanding that Obama apologize for our country’s three decades of support for the Mubarak regime. Now, in the absence of a presidential apology, we take it upon ourselves to apologize. We resolve to work for human rights in solidarity with you, calling for a swift transition for democracy in Egypt. We intend to work so that U.S. foreign policy truly becomes aligned with the values of democracy and human rights.”
WOW! Norm Solomon signed a petition!!! Watch out Empire!!!
Solomon is a putz who always is a light apologist for Empire... please, oh please... let's work within our glorious system! (which, btw stopped working four decades ago).
Note how Solomon emplores that "US foreign policy becomes aligned with the values of democracy and human rights" ...completely overlookin the same in domestic policy.
Solomon is a complete 'defender of Empire" fraud.
If politicians are puppets for sale, why do we continue to depend on them for our salvation?:
" Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results...
Albert Einstein
"America does not have a government "by the people"
The United States of America is not, in fact, a true democracy. In a democracy, the people are the government. Today, we elect people to run the government for us. The people we elect do not, for the most part, run the country in the interest of the people; they run it in the interest of themselves. We are led to believe that we must put our trust in these people. We, the People, do not have the power to create laws in our interest. This causes an imbalance of power in the government."
http://ni4d.us/en/why_ni4d
"Secretary of State Clinton is correct when she says that Iran’s regime is “awful.”
Norm, did you really write that shit? I wonder what kind of nation ours would be if a superpower had overthrown our government and now occupied Canada and Mexico, imposed an economic embargo, told us all options were on the table in terms of what it might do to us......and so on.
Norm, next time think before you offer us such drivel.
ez...
Did you read this as "Breaking News"???
from the article, er, the Open Letter?:
~ From the United States, we watched as you stood up for democracy, faced huge obstacles and used nonviolent action to depose a dictator,” the letter says. “We send you our congratulations and appreciation for showing us -- and people all over the planet -- the power of mobilized humanity in the quest for justice and freedom.”
The letter adds: “As Americans, we have a responsibility to reset U.S. government policies in Egypt and the entire region. Last week, thousands of us signed a letter [ http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6503/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3264 ] demanding that Obama apologize for our country’s three decades of support for the Mubarak regime. Now, in the absence of a presidential apology, we take it upon ourselves to apologize. We resolve to work for human rights in solidarity with you, calling for a swift transition for democracy in Egypt. We intend to work so that U.S. foreign policy truly becomes aligned with the values of democracy and human rights.” ~
the naievete revealed in this letter is jaw-dropping...
I, too, believed, at one time, that my government worked as advertised, which meant my opinion was valued the same as everyone else's...
observation and research revealed I was a fool...my opinion, my vote, are irrelevant...as is yours...
demand whatever...is this for real, or are you making fun of us?
the ongoing conclusion being drawn in the American media, that Egypt has mounted a successful non-violent revolution, is not borne out by any fact...
whether Mubarak, personally, is in charge there is no more important than whether Obama, personally, is in charge here...
what is going on is so much larger...these men are just cogs...mean, murderous and wealthy cogs, but cogs, nonetheless...
Beautiful Norm...
You can now crawl back under your bridge until your next episode:
"When 'Bad' Dictators go Good".
Can hardly wait...
The white house had to signal support for Mubarak for the sake of relations with other countries. It was a responsible move. We have to have relations with others no matter whether we approve their form of government or not. If we threw Mubarak under a bus at the first hint of civilian unrest then that would signal the US cannot be a trusted partner. Biden's statement was good.
Hey, ideals are ideals, but then there's real life too.
Biden's comment was idiotic, and that is because Biden is a zionist shill and will lie, cheat and betray his own country in order to defend Isreal. He has lots of company in this regard in the US government.
Mubarek should have been "thrown under the bus" decades ago. Decades of US support for his tyranny shows that the people of the world can't trust the US!
He was a signatory on pnac.
I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.
What crap!
I think the people with bleeding skulls in Tahrir Square last week know a little something about "real life" lived in a country with a tyrannical regime. I think if we threw Mubarak under a bus, then that would signal that maybe we actually meant all that spiel about "freedom and democracy". If keeping the people terrorized and silent is responsible behavior, then I shudder to think what that indicates our government really values in its relations.
It's touching to see Norm on the right side of the barricades in Egypt. Pity he isn't here in the U.S. when it comes to the farce of a "democracy" we have here. It's no more Democratic than Egypt under Mubarak and is as much a dictatorship. It's a smarter dictatorship. The Dictatorship of Two Parties. Really smart. Creates the illusion of electoral democracy. Then there is the endemic corruption of the U.S. political system at every level and the lack of competitive elections in the overwhelming majority of Congressional representative races.
Now what happens to people trying to protest at those awful spectacles known as the Democratic and Republican National Conventions? The cities they are held in are turned into police states and the rights of demonstrators get trampled all the time. And where is Norm? Why he is participating in one of these two farcical political "conventions", which are really stage managed spectacles, while constantly attacking any attempt to run campaigns outside of the Democratic Party, most notably Nader. Norm isn't committed to real democracy in the U.S. If he were an Egyptian he would have been lecturing the young demonstrators to "work within and reform" Mubaraks' NDP electoral front.
Very well said.
Never was a time when dictators were good. The title should read "When Bad Dictators Go Worse"
Nasser ruled Egypt and established a made-in-Egypt socialism. His influence in the Middle East became known as Nasserism. To counter the influence of Nasserism, the US and their Saudi stooges poured resources into establishing a counter-force to Nasserism - the Muslim Brotherhood.
It's sickly ironic that today the US is so worried about Egyptian democracy because it might lead to more political power for the Muslim Brotherhood. And we do know that it was the Muslim Brotherhood that was the midwife of Ben Laden's organization (along with the CIA).
What comes around goes around. The American manipulations to try and maintain its hegemony as the center of the capitalist world leave nothing but destruction in its path.