Friends

Henry Kissinger once said: "The US doesn't have friends, only interests."

Despite all of our rhetoric, the US does not have a good track record of being on the side of human rights throughout the last couple of hundred years...

Guatemala: Remember Arbenz?

Indonesia: Remember Suharto? And the bloodbath that was East Timor?

Chile: Remember Allende?

El Salvador: Remember those nuns? Oscar Romero? Does the training of death sqauds at Fort Benning ring a bell?

Nicaragua: Supported a proxy army that perpetrated years of violence and murder, then when the opposition finally won (in order to put an end to the US-sponsored onslaught and the Sandanistas finally lost) it was declared a "free and fair" election. Jimmy Carter's biggest shame.

This was why the US quit the World Court. It's not justice if we don't win.

Tunisia: Remember the 1987 election that was tossed out because the "right" people didn't win? It's not democracy if we don't win.

Iraq: They were our friends before they were our enemies and then our friends again.

Iran: Remember the Shah? How many years was he in power? How many people died?

South Africa: What year did we finally decide that Apartheid was a bad thing?

The list just goes on and on...so why are we surprised when the people finally rise and we discover that they are not necessarly enamored of our style of governance and diplomacy?

So when folks start saying that they support democracy, be careful. They may mean "democracy" and not democracy. Ditto for "human rights."

Pax.