Yes I know my enemies...
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite.
All of which are American dreams.
- Zack de la Rocha
It is another sad day in US history. Once again this administration has compromised our morals to a point that makes me wonder if we ever had any.
You may wonder what I'm talking about, and that shows just how far gone this country is. Today, I'm talking about the declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan by General Pervez Musharraf, and the US' decision to continue aid to the country as an ally in the "war on terror." The Bush administration is obviously upset about the numerous suspensions of civil rights in the country, but not enough to do anything about it. Musharraf, who declared the emergency to suppress "terrorism" in the state, did not expect any reaction from senior US officials to his tightening of power over the country, and he didn't get any. This suspension of the Constitution and the firing of the Supreme Court was conveniently made days before the court was to rule on the legitimacy of his recent reelection.
Musharraf knew that the US cares too much about the war on terror to do anything about a attack on democracy in the name of fighting terrorism. “They [the US] would rather have a stable Pakistan — albeit with some restrictive norms — than have more democracy prone to fall in the hands of extremists,” said Tariq Azim Khan, the minister of state for information.
And even though Bush's presidency has been based on the platform of spreading freedom and democracy, the administration has done nothing but encourage Musharraf to loosen his control. Bush will condemn and sanction anti-democratic actions in Myanmar, a country we have nothing invested in, but then less than a month later, allow one of our "allies" to suspend the rights and liberties of its people. How can we expect other countries, like Iraq, to encourage democracy, when we won't even to it ourselves?
Bush's hypocrisy runs deep. I remember the moment I realized what kind of person we had for a president when he nominated Harriet Miers to the supreme court. He used her track record as an "Evangelical Christian" to try to win her support from the Republican party. This is the same president who said: "It's going to be the spread of democracy, itself, that shows folks the importance of separation of church and state." Obviously, democracy hasn't spread too far in this country.
I can continue to blather on about how much I disapprove of what the administration is doing, and how Bush really only cares about stabilizing his own power, and about how Musharraf's actions will only create more terrorism, as well as Bush's actions in Iraq, but this is something we all know. We knew there were no WMD's in Iraq. We knew that Bush was lying to us. We know that they could have gotten Osama bin Landen instead. We know Karl Rove exposed Valarie Plame. We know this because these senior level administrators have no respect for the values that they claim to promote, or for the citizens they claim to represent.
My question is, why isn't anyone doing anything about it?
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I like the strategic point of view that Sen. Dodd put forth in the last democratic debate. He said that pulling aid would be pulling out our last chip and if we lost we would lose most of our influence over Pakistan. Musharraf would not want to look to be at the beck and call of the US to his country so he would not back down. We want to punish Musharraf, not Pakistan. What we should have been doing since Vietnam was exporting good will. It is like the surge in Iraq. The point of the surge in Iraq now is not military but civilian, that is why it costs more. We are trying to win over the general population there by providing stability. Stability is something very important to most people in the world that we take for granted. I read the Counterinsurgency Field guide and it clarified to me about what we are doing now in Iraq. The surge was a way to sell the principles of this document without having to explain it to the American people (who are idiots because they are treated like them). We should have been exporting good will in the form of infrastructure, technology, and medicine with a big “sponsored by the USA” sticker on it all. Instead we send guns that kill people and inspire terrorists. Westernization is a contagious idea if you let people follow you and not when you push them. I fear that if things go civil war in Pakistan the only solution the US will have is to tactically strike everywhere they think could have a nuclear weapon because even a limited special ops campaign to disarm them would be very costly in American lives. I find it very convenient for the US that they happen to be sending air craft carriers to Bangladesh for storm recovery, although we already have planes all around nearby. The nuclear bombs would probably go more towards fighting India than for Islamic terrorists trying to get us. There will always be people who want to kill us, so we need to start using a sustainable strategy, and unfortunately that may mean taking our finger out of the dam. I hope our next president is able to show a better face to the world of olive branches and not arrows.
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