We're bringing freedom to the wrong countries

On May 2nd, I posted some links to stories that indicated that our "friends" in Uzbekistan are really Unocal and Halliburton's friends.

According to the Nation, "When not personally gunning down his opposition, [dictator] Karimov keeps busy by instructing his security forces to boil, rape or asphyxiate political prisoners." Last week militants stormed the prisons in Uzbekistan to free prisoners. Karimov instructed soldiers to open fire and up to 745 were reported dead.... women and children.

How did the bushistas respond to this? "We have some concerns about human rights in Uzbekistan, but we are concerned about the outbreak of violence, particularly by some members of a terrorist group freed from prison," Scott McClellan said. "The people of Uzbekistan want to see more representative and democratic government, but that should come through peaceful means, not through violence." Please read the story while I throw up. It's not long.

Al Franken on the Bill Maher Show, May 13th: ... I've gone on a few USO tours, and a couple of years ago, I went to Uzbekistan . Okay, now, Uzbekistan , you know, is right above Afghanistan . I went to an Air Force base that serves the war in Afghanistan . And I always like to talk to the PSY-OPs guys when I go ...And they're real loose-lipped. They'll talk to a comedian.
And so I said to these guys, I said, “Now, how is the Uzbekistan regime?” And they went, “Ah, they're great! They're so cooperative.” And I said, “No, no, no. I meant, I've heard they're like the most repressive regime of all the former Soviet republics.” And they said, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're horrible.” “They boil people. They boil people.”

So much for bringing democracy to the world.

Last week in Latvia, Bush lied, "We will not repeat the mistakes of other generations, appeasing or excusing tyranny, and sacrificing freedom in the vain pursuit of stability."

We're allies with plenty of tyrants. Mark Morford's column today "Saudi Arabia, Off The Hook
The 9/11 terrorists were mostly Saudi. Suicide bombers in Iraq are Saudi. And we're allies?"

Do we need justification? Sanctimonious moral authority? More pseudo-Christian rationalization, besides the fact that we've known since a month after 9/11 that the vast majority of the WTC terrorists were Saudi? We've got plenty.

Did you know that Saudi Arabia treats its women one barely noticeable notch above that of the brutal Taliban? ...

... The Washington Post points it all out, right here, all about how a huge number of suicide bombers in Iraq are turning out to be mostly Saudi, and how both 9/11 and BushCo's negligent and insidious actions in the increasingly volatile Middle East have created the most incredible hotbed for new and crude terrorists since Osama started a summer camp.

... America now cares about one thing: empire. The rush to neoconservative power. And the perpetuation of fear as a means to securing that power for many years to come.

Historian Gore Vidal on Bill Maher's show made an interesting point about the US's lousy ability to be an empire:

MAHER:You think there's no hope that this could actually turn around and become something more decent than it was before under that dictator?

VIDAL: Like Guatemala ? Like Nicaragua ? Like all of those countries that we wrecked down in—[applause]—Central America? We are lousy at this sort of thing.

MAHER: Yeah.

VIDAL: We are not made for the empire game. We were supposed to be republic. And not in the empire business. And every time we set our foot in, we fall on our face.

If we had a real media, Americans would be furious to know what is happening. Read Crooks and Liars' take on the bullshit media complete with phone numbers to the evil cable news companies.

I still maintain that people of conscience need to sacrifice their comforts of cable tv. Call your cable companies and demand that they take CNN, MSNBC and FOX off your cable service or cancel your subscription. Demand that they provide a real news channel... not opinions.