March 4, 2012

Letter to the Editor on Syria & Bahrain

Everything possible to stop the bloody terror in Syria should be done, but as an all-out civil war it's qualitatively different from other recent movements in the Arab world.  Thus, neither sanctimonious  US pronouncements nor self-serving UN vetoes are likely to have much effect.

More to the point are the many US client states that could be helped but aren't due to US "interests" in the region.  The suppression of the Bahraini democracy movement on its 1-year anniversary is only the latest example of the blatant hypocrisy of US Mid-East policy. 

Why is there no US support for democracy in Bahrain?  Could it be because Bahrain is the home port of the US 5th Fleet "needed" to intimidate Iran and other Gulf states?  What about the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and Jordan?  No support for democracy there either.  Maybe because Kingdom One is the biggest oil supplier in the world and Kingdom Two is a US toady that cooperates with Israel in the suppression Palestinians. 

Iraq and Libya, of course, are different.  They have oil.  Hence, Operation Iraq Liberation (OIL-1), Operation Independent Libya (OIL-2), and the plan to Ouster Iran's Leadership (OIL-3).  US client state Yemen recently had an election--with one candidate!  The USSR would have been envious.  Similarly, US elections won't change policy in the region either as every candidate and party priority seems to be declaring allegiance to Israel.  Vibrant democracy does not come from managed elections--not in the Mid-East and not in the US either.

> The article above was written by Robert Kosuth, and was originally a letter to the editor sent to the Duluth News-Tribune.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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