I've been doing some reading on Empires lately, more the British and American than the Star Wars kind, and I've been just amazed at how many lies get told and believed. One of the lies that I've heard a few times is the so-called supporting democracy lie.
As Canada decided not to participate in the Iraq war, we've taken a fair bit of heat from the US. They aren't sure of Canada as a friend because we're not helping them in Iraq. It's worth noting that Afghanistan is the biggest Canadian troop deployment since the Korean War. But no, helping out in the country where the 9/11 terrorists did their scheming isn't enough. But the lieing and hypocracy is more blatant than even that.
Let's look at the publicly stated reasons why the US and the coalition of the willing went into Iraq:
1. Weapons of Mass Destruction
2. Bad guy killing his own people
3. Promote Democracy
Well, we know what's happened on reason #1. Given that the "WMD" thing was the main reason, you could make an argument that the US ought to re-install Saddam as he clearly is innocent of the WMD charge. Given that he's not gonna be released any time soon, WMD isn't the reason then.
OK, the Bad guy charge seems pretty true. But there's lots of places that are just as bad. And there's a fair amount of hypocracy in the bad-guy charge as US foreign policy loved him when he was being bad-ass on the Iranians. I might actually even support a consistent foreign policy that says "let's go after dictators that have killed over 0.0001% of their population". Of course, that puts us on a collision course with China and Zimbabwe and ... So that can't be it.
The third reason (lie) is the one that really really irks me. So the US has decided that instilling democracy is a main reason to topple brutal dictators. What is democracy? That's where the people get to elect their leaders, and usually/hopefully that means the leaders obey the wishes of the people.
In the Iraq invasion, parts of Europe supported the invasion, and other parts didn't. The US got pretty upset and those that didn't support the invasion, calling them "old europe". And the parts that supported the invasion are "new Europe". Here's a question: Based upon polls, how many european countries supported invading Iraq? The answer: 0. Zero. Nada. The majority of people in every country did not support the invasion
So let's get this straight. The countries where the leaders did exactly what the people wanted, that is not invade iraq, are "old europe". The countries that did the opposite of what the people wanted are "new europe". How on earth is this supporting democracy?
There's *a lot* of hypocracy of saying that "we want to support democracy" and then proceeding to attempt to undermine democracy in every country that actually followed what the people wanted.
And because Canada followed what the people wanted - which is to not go to war because we didn't believe there were any WMD - the US now regularly bullies Canada. "Soviet Canuckistan" is a classic curse from the US right.
It's clearly not about supporting democracy if you then slag democracy's results. What it really is about is doing whatever the US wants at the current moment, such as giving them unfettered access to your resources, sometimes called Free Trade. You do what they want and you are a good guy. Don't do what they want, you're a bad guy.
The problem with not following your publicly stated principles or morals is that everybody knows it. And because they haven't followed a principled foreign policy, nobody trusts them.
It's just about the exercise of power, and nothing to do with the publicly stated reasons. In fact, I wonder if the publicly stated reasons have *anything* to do with what goes on. The mode is simply "lie, bully folks into doing what you want, and then lie some more".
That leaders of Empires have been able to do this for so many years, and even in democracies, is just apalling. And the incompetence of the opposition is staggering. How can the democrats not be able to crucify a "conservative" leader that spends an extra trillion dollars in 2 years, loses close to a thousand troops after invading a country for a reason that was COMPLETELY wrong? Staggering incompetence. But then, I guess the dems don't really want to support democracy either..
Two comments for you to think about and follow up:
1. In interviews for a tv program, our old friend Noam Chomsky (have you read his latest book?) talked about the American press and how dependent they are on the good will of the current administration in Washington. As we know, there's more to any news story than a press release or public annnouncement, and a lot of information is exchanged in social settings in Washington. If the press are out of favour with the Washington powers, they don't get invited to social events, and also get excluded in other ways. So, it's in their best interests to report in such a way that they stay in favour with the current administration. Put that spin on CNN next time!
2. Another interesting book for your reading list is Karen Armstrong's Holy War, the Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World. While this isn't a new book (1988) it still provides important insights about the Middle East.
Keep thinking and questioning!
Love, Mom