Deliberate
Hypocrisy
By Ghali Hassan
31 October, 2007
Countercurrents.org
While
in Moscow in October 2007, U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice
still had the time to preach U.S. “democracy” and “human
rights”. Meanwhile in Iraq, daily indiscriminate bombing raids
by U.S. forces on Iraqi civilians are continuing in flagrant violation
of international human rights law. The aim of this deliberate hypocrisy
is to manufacture delusions and induce moral bankruptcy among the population,
and to justify the use of violence to further U.S.-Western imperialist
agenda.
As the U.S. Secretary met
with Russian “activists”, U.S. occupying forces in Iraq
killed at least 34 innocent Iraqi civilians, including six women and
nine children, and injured many more near Lake Tharthar, north of Baghdad.
While these crimes are daily occurrence, the war against the Iraqi people
has increased significantly. In addition to the rise in troop’s
number – 170, 000 U.S. troops supplemented by 180,000 private
mercenaries –, the number of bombs dropped on Iraq during the
first six months of 2007 over the same period in 2006 has increased
by five-fold. More than 30 tons of those have been cluster weapons,
which targeted civilians and always resulted in a massacre of innocent
civilians each time they are dropped.
As the Occupation continues,
the death rate of Iraqis has doubled every year since 2003. The latest
survey put the number of death to more than an estimated 1.22 million
Iraqis, mostly women and children have been murdered since the 2003
U.S. aggression. The mass murder of Iraqis is not even discussed in
public and the UN continues to play the role of an accomplice.
In addition to the mass murder
of civilians, at least 4.5 million Iraqis have fled their homes because
of the violence, and the numbers are rising steadily. More than half
of them is internally displaced, refugees in their own country. They
are enduring daily harsh and miserable living conditions, far worse
than they have ever endured before the unprovoked aggression against
their nation. The remainder have sought refuge outside Iraq. Only a
small number were able to settle in the West, and the U.S. is the least
interested in their wellbeing. As a result of U.S. aggression, most
Iraqis have suffered the loss of a family member; more than 43 per cent
of Iraqis live in absolute poverty; 70 per cent lack adequate water
supplies; and 80 per cent lack sanitation (UNHCR, 2007).
The U.S. record of flagrant
violation of human rights and contempt for International Law is nowhere
more violent than in Iraq. On 12 May 1996, Madeleine Albright, the then
Secretary of State in the Clinton’s Administration described the
mass murder of 500,000 innocent Iraqi children – a direct result
of the U.S.-Britain enforced genocidal sanctions – as: “a
very hard choice, but the price – we think the price is worth
it”. While the U.S. is well-known as an example of tyranny and
the greatest enemy of democracy and human rights, very few people thought
the U.S. was preparing for the total destruction of Iraq and mass murder
of Iraqi civilians when the U.S. began its war of aggression to destroy
the Iraqi State.
The “New” Iraq,
designed by George Bush and his gang of hardcore Zionists, is a brain-drained
and empty of human resources. In Bush’s thinking, the cradle of
human civilisation would have to be wiped off the map and replaced by
a new (Americanised) Iraq. As we know, Iraq’s cultural heritage
and history have been deliberately looted and destroyed. Iraq’s
professionals, including academics, scientists, doctors and teachers
have been systematically liquidated in cold blood by U.S.-Israeli trained
and financed murders and death squads. For rejecting Bush agenda and
his Zionist scheme for their nation, Iraqis are living in state of fear
and terror, and stripped of their basic human rights and dignity.
The deliberate destruction
of Iraq and the creation of a dependent U.S. proxy serving U.S.-Western
interests is part of the U.S.-Israel imperialist agenda. It is now clear
that the U.S. primary goal in Iraq has to do with the protection of
the Israeli fascist regime and U.S. imperialist domination of the region
and its oil resources. Every one knows that U.S. rhetoric (of democracy
and justice) is nothing short of fascist propaganda masquerading as
“democracy” and “human rights”. It is worth
remembering that when Adolf Hitler invaded other nations (Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Ukraine, etc.), Hitler uses the same concocted “human
rights” pretexts to justify his war crimes.
Today’s Iraq is a lawless
land where foreign mercenaries, and expatriate criminals and extremists
are terrorising the civilian population with impunity. By arming and
financing one faction against the other, the U.S. exacerbates the violence
and hence justifies the ongoing Occupation. This criminal colonial policy
is not new, as many have suggested. In order to serve their imperialist
interests, U.S. and Western governments have always had strong love
affairs with criminals and terrorists. Indeed, U.S. support for terrorism
is part of U.S. strategy to continue the Occupation of Iraq.
Speaking of terrorists, Kurdish
warlords and their militia in northern Iraq have been used by Western
governments and Israel and proved to be reliable pawns. The Kurds treacherous
collaboration in the murderous Occupation of Iraq is just one epoch
in their history of treason and serving imperialism’s interests
at the expense of ordinary Kurds. The Kurdish armed groups, the so-called
Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK) or Kurdistan Workers Party, are now
described by the Western media as “Kurdish fighters” fighting
for autonomy and are allowed to remain in a safe haven in U.S.-occupied
northern Iraq. Of course, this sounds like a decent group of ‘freedom
fighters’, like Roland Regan’s Contras murderers in Latin
America. Forgotten is the decades-long history of the PKK campaign of
terror against the Turkey.
In contrast, the image of
the legitimate Iraqi Resistance against the murderous Occupation is
distorted and the Resistance is portrayed as an “insurgency”
and a collection of “al-Qaeda” terrorists. Likewise, Afghans
who are resisting the occupation of their country are labelled “terrorists”.
The democratically-elected Palestinian Resistant Movement (HAMAS) is
also labelled ‘terrorists’ for legitimately resisting Israel’s
terror. Hence, Palestinian children have to suffer the wrath of a U.S.-EU
blockade enforced by Israel’s terror.
In 2006, the Bush Administration
was behind Israel’s invasion of Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah fighters
there. In addition to the destruction of Lebanon vital infrastructure,
Israeli aggression killed some 1,500 innocent civilians and turned more
than half a million into refugees, with tacit U.S.-EU approval. Condoleezza
Rice called Israel’s premeditated terror, the “birth pangs
of a new Middle East”. And to make the situation worse, the U.S.
and its allies not only refused to condemn or stop Israel’s terror
against the civilians population, but the U.S. shipped bombs to Israel
knowing in advance that the Israeli army was deliberately targeting
innocent Lebanese civilians. Now, compare this with U.S. opposition
to Turkey’s plan to stop Kurdish terror.
It follows, the term ‘terrorist’
is reserved for those who are rejecting U.S. domination and fighting
to free themselves from U.S.-Israel Occupation. As rightly described
by the late Pakistani scholar, Eqbal Ahmad, ‘terrorism’
is a floating signifier attached at will to Western enemies to evoke
moral revulsion. The vagueness and inconsistency of its definition is
key to its political usefulness.
Furthermore, let’s
take a look at the U.S.-West hypocrisy of holding Turkey responsible
for allegedly committed an “Armenian genocide” some 90 years
ago while deliberately ignoring the ongoing Iraqi Genocide. As Professor
Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University in New York accurately elaborated,
that genocide is being instrumentalised in a way that mass slaughters
which implicate the U.S adversaries are being named “genocide”
and those that implicate the U.S. and its friends are not being named
genocide. In the case of Turkey – a U.S.-NATO ally –, the
aim is to blackmail Turkey and distort the image of Muslims and Islam,
and associate Muslims with violence and deflect guilt away from U.S.-Western
perpetrators of the Iraqi Genocide.
If you reflect on the ongoing
violence and suffering inflicted on millions of people around the world
you will realise that whether it is the mass murder of innocent Iraqi
civilians and the deliberate starvation of Palestinian children or the
destruction of the environment and the spread of poverty, the U.S. and
its Western allies are the main perpetrators. They are on the move looking
for a fight, continually fabricating lies and engineering crises in
order to justify violence, as if the current sad world’s state
of affairs is not enough. And they get away with whatever war crimes
they have committed.
Tony Blair, the still-free
and unindicted war criminal, continues to see himself performing his
role as propagandist for the “values” he “shared”
with George Bush. Blair’s “new” role is preaching
the same fascist ideology he preached while Britain prime minister.
At the expense of the lives of innocent Palestinian children, his mission
is the “security” of Israel. Important issues such as the
Gaza blockade – where Palestinian children are dying from starvation
and malnutrition – or the human rights of some 11,000 Palestinian
prisoners, including a large number of innocent women and children,
enduring Israel’s brutal treatments of sadistic torture, sexual
abuses and murder, are deliberately ignored.
When it comes to Israel,
U.S.-Western governments employ the most blatant form of hypocrisy.
For example, despite Israel’s chronic violations of international
human rights law, breach of countless UN Resolutions regarding the occupation
of Palestinian land, and Israel appetite for unprovoked acts of aggression,
U.S.-Western governments provide unconditional political, financial
and military support to Israel. The ongoing U.S. threat to attack Iran
is jus a case in point. The U.S. government, with its massive arsenal
of nuclear weapons, accuses Iran of posing threat to U.S. and Israel
security and “having ambitions” to develop nuclear weapons.
Of course, there is no hard evidence to support these concocted pretexts.
Iran is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and
is allowing frequent inspections of its facilities by the UN Nuclear
Watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Unlike Iran, Israel has refused
to sign the NPT or allowed inspection of its facilities. It is clear
that Israel possesses a vast arsenal of nuclear weapons, and has threatened
to use these weapons against countries in the region. Israel continues
to illegally occupy Palestinian land. Despite all of this, Israel has
the full blessing of the U.S.-Western governments.
It is worth noting that three-quarters
of Americans are against U.S.-Israel military threat to attack Iran.
The same number of Americans favours a diplomatic solution to the (engineered)
crisis. The drumbeat for war against Iran is pushed by U.S. Zionists
(the so-called ‘Neocons’), the powerful pro-Israel Jewish
Lobby, and by the Israeli regime. Just take a look inside one of these
pro-war U.S.-based ‘think-tanks’ (institutes), and count
those with “dual loyalty” to Israel and (maybe) to the U.S.
The push for war with Iran
is part of a fascist anti-Muslims/anti-Arabs propaganda campaign in
the U.S. and Europe. There are concerted efforts by inherently racist
Zionists, the U.S.-Western media and the entertainment industry to dehumanised
and vilified Arabs. Take a look at how the mass killing of innocent
Iraqi and Afghan civilians is justified and applauded by U.S.-Western
leaders and sold as part of U.S.-Western “shared values”
to spread “democracy” and “human rights”. The
campaign is a deliberate effort to spread fear and hatred, and build
public support for war on Muslim nations, including Iran.
In the U.S., thousands of
Muslim immigrants and American citizens have been illegally hounded
in witch-hunt roundups, held in secret detention centres, “black
holes”, where they disappear for months into extreme solitary
confinement, and many illegally deported without due process. Their
“crime” is their Muslim faith. (For more, see Chris Hedges,
Truthdig, 29/10/2007).
The immoral and illegal policy
of “extraordinary rendition” in which CIA agents kidnap
innocent Muslims and so-called “terrorism suspects” anywhere
in the world and illegally transfer them to prisons in countries where
they are tortured on behalf of the U.S. or sent them to secret CIA prisons
(“black sites”) hidden across Europe, where they are tortured
by CIA agents is flagrant violation of international human rights law.
Many Muslims, mostly innocent, include prisoners of the wars on Afghanistan
and Iraq have ended-up in the Pentagon official Concentration Camp at
Guantánamo Bay where some of them were tortured to death.
Furthermore, Hundreds of
thousands of innocent Iraqis, including women and children, are imprisoned
in countless U.S.-run prisons throughout Iraq. They are denied basic
human rights and enduring systematic torture, abuse and murder in violations
of International Law, including the UN Convention and the Geneva Conventions
against torture and mistreatment of detainees and prisoners. The infamous
Abu Ghraib (where George Bush known to have perfected the practice of
torture) is just the tip of the iceberg in America’s global network
of torture centres.
The Russians must be wondering
about the U.S. Secretary preaching “democracy” and “human
rights” in their country while deliberately ignoring not only
the inequality and violations of human rights in her own country –
where at least 50 million of her fellow Americans (mostly African Americans)
are denied health care and treated with contempt –, but also a
catalogue of U.S. government violations of International Law and contempt
for human lives around the world.
In sum, the primary aim of
U.S.-Western deliberate hypocrisy is to control the public, induce moral
bankruptcy and justify the use of violence to further U.S.-Western imperialist
agenda, using “democracy” and “human rights”
as political tools. Thus, as long as U.S.-Western leaders continue to
ignore their own war crimes and their complicity in war crimes, they
have no moral authority or credibility to judge other countries or interfere
in the affairs of other countries.
Ghali Hassan is an independent writer living in Australia.
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