THE DOUBLE STANDARDS OF AMERICAN "FREE THE WORLD" DEMOCRACY THEOLOGY IN PRACTICEThere were two significant international events this week that symbolized the duplicitous and evil self serving nature of cold war politics that left an indelible mark on events yesterday; events to come and have an impact on what we can do around the world today as well.
First was the conviction for genocide of the Soviet backed Ethiopia's Marxist ex-ruler, Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was found guilty of genocide after a 12-year trial. The former leader was tried in absentia for killing about 2000 Ethiopians; he has been in exile in Zimbabwe since being ousted in 1991 and many fear he will never face justice.
The other was an equally important little mentioned demise of another brutal dictator in our own Hemisphere: General Pinochet of Chile.
An epitaph to Pinochet would have to say the following
“ "over 3,200 dissidents murdered and buried in unmarked graves, tens of thousands incarcerated, raped and tortured including men, women and children in torture chambers, with CIA support and US government backing" ;
Our Government, specially Nixon and Ronald Reagan loved this man just like we liked Saddam when he was fighting Iran from 1980 to 89. Sadly this man could not be brought to trial because he had very strong friends in very high places. The American Installed dictator Pinochet claimed he was doing "God’s work against socialism!" while establishing torture chambers in Chile. The current President of Chile, Ms Michele Bachelet was a survivor of Pinochet's torture chambers.
Imagine a devout Christian/Catholic behaving like those Islamic extremists we condemn now and invoking God's name to brutalize a nation in our own hemisphere with our blessings!
Pinochet overthrew a democratically elected socialist President Allende, in 1973 in a CIA backed bloody and brutal coup in Chile. US Companies including many Telecom giants backed this violent military coup. The republican Administrations loved him and Nixon and the CIA were responsible for his ascension to power.
As were the case when the USA was backing Saddam, (ironically he is on trial for the some crimes committed when we and the British were actively trying to block UN resolutions condemning him that were sponsored by his enemy Iran) it was only those who cared about human rights consistently who took a liberal "busybody" stand against dictators whether they were our allies or not; ( right wing Senators such as our own loved to denigrate these people who spoke out against tyrants regardless of their ideologies as "busybodies"; but they are the ones who consistent stood out against all sorts of tyrannies for decades before we found "liberation theology" to invade Iraq and caused a quagmire.)
During the 1970s and 80s when we and the Russians were equally guilty of installing and propping up tyrants and murderers and even evil terrorists such as the Islamic nutcases we armed and financed via Pakistan to go into Afghanistan, to do our dirty work in proxy wars that took place throughout the entire third world.
Pakistan’s NE territories became a terrorist’s veritable dream arms bazaar because of our policies. To this date, Pakistani radicals pose a bigger threat than Saddam ever did to us.
The amazing beauty of the average American is, that once people are presented facts and informed, they no longer accept the jingoistic rhetoric of leaders who constantly used fear and the phrase “we are doing the world a favor by liberating Iraqis” etc to justify chaotic poorly conceived, poorly managed wars we have got ourselves into perioidically and find hard to extricate ourselves from. Ironically, some of our own local Congressmen claimed “We are spreading freedom thanks to Mr and Mrs America”
Sordid historic facts speak for themselves about the duplicitous role of the two super powers that have left lingering wars across many parts of the world. Why is our congressional Republican delegation that “hoorayed” this war, silent at the nearly trillion dollar cost, the 3000 dead young Americans, tens of thousands young Americans maimed, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths now? How can they explain it to us now? Why are they being like Pontius Pilate?
The consequences of our actions in Iraq will last for decades and even though there is no way to withdraw now, we must still hold those elected leaders and their incompetent planners who rushed into a war that has devastated our credibility and clout around the world accountable. In a similar vein we cannot ignore what we have caused in Iraq now and keep behaving like Pontius Pilates!
Were Pinochet’s genocidal crimes against humanity less egregious than Saddam’s or Mariam’s because he was "with us"? If we really had ever stood behind our professed belief in democracy for the last 60+ years, the world probably would be a better place.
Luke 6:41-42 41And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?
