If you understand the Middle East, this story featured on NPR this morning should concern you. Here we have a public uprising well before Tunisia. A public uprising in Bahrain that was squelched by the ruling Al Khalifa family. The power that was supported by American foreign policy. See, the United States only cares about freedom and democracy if it's interests are not compromised. And there is a HUGE U.S. navel base in Bahrain. Sound like a double standard? Well, yes it does. And if you've followed American foreign policy in the Middle East for the last 60 years, you'll understand why anyone would bomb the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on February 26, 1993 or September 11, 2001. We supported an oppressive Shah in Iran. We supported Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran war. And it's that double standard that impacts Americans years or decades later. We can't let this double standard continue. More Americans will die because of this. Not to mention the Bahrain citizens that died from this oppression that the U.S. just allowed to continue for the cheep price of oil or the fact that there is a navel base there...
'via Blog this'
This isn't new. One need only read 'Confessions of an Economic Hitman' to learn about our involvement in South America. Our involvement in the Middle East is more transparent, if for no other reason than Baby Boomers still have memories of the gas crisis during the Carter years.
ReplyDeleteIt's easier to use brute force (or condone the use of it by others) to attempt to prop up a non-sustainable way of life than it is to modify habits engrained in us over the last 60 years. "The American way of life is non-negotiable," as Dick Cheney once cackled.