I've really had enough of this nation's hypocrisy. And before you get all defensive and stop reading this post because you think I'm anti-American just listen to what I have to say. After all they say that dissent is the highest form of patriotism. Our leaders have lied to us about the goals or rather the results of the war on terror and its time to speak out.
If you ask any politician what we are fighting for they would probably throw out the same tired old BS line, "we're fighting to protect America and spread democracy". I agree wholehartedly with both, if that's what were actually happening.Recently two incidents occurred in the middle east that have been largely ignored by the American government and news outlets. Ignored for good reason, these events are absolutely shameful. In Iraq, the proud reporter who threw his shoe at George Bush during a press conference saying that it was "for the widows and children and all who have died in your war" was arrested, beaten, and sentenced to 3 years in prison for assaulting a foreign dignitary. The trial itself was over very quickly and the overall fairness of the whole affair is doubtful at best. At any rate the man acted as he did in order to make a political statement, it certainly wasn't assault. He threw a shoe at him, one that missed at any rate.
Allow me to be very clear, my own personal opinion about Bush does not matter. What the Iraqi journalist did was a little outrageous in and of itself, but isn't that what political protest is all about? Sometimes the outrageous works. There have been many protest since before the war even started and NONE of them have gotten the attention that this stunt did. Whatever your or my opinion of Bush, the reporter or the war on terrorism is, the objective facts remain unchanged. In a so called "democracy" that we have supposedly molded after our own, a man was arrested, severly beaten, and then thrown in jail after a sham of a trial.
Yet no one in America is outraged about this. Not only is this morally wrong but it makes us and our country look like the fools of the world. We talk the talk but then don't walk the walk. The people in America our either clueless, heartless, or they stupidly believe in these trumped up assault charges. I'm going to go outside after posting this and throw a shoe at the first person I see. I guarantee you no one will charge me with "assault"
But wait it gets better. Maybe this form of extreme protest makes you a little uneasy and less likely to sypathize with the offender, I admit it took me a minute to come around. So let's move on to America's other little colonization project in the middle east. Afghanistan. Here a man was arrested for "blashpemy" and sentenced to 30 YEARS in prison. What did he do to deserve such a fate? What heresy is so horrible that he deserves this punishment? Surely it must be something serious like taking a dump on the Koran while calling allah every four letter name in the book. Nope, not even close. He circulated pamphlets about supporting women's rights in the new "democratic" country under the leadership of President Karzai, a leader who's popularity is falling everyday.
Under the oppressive Taliban regime, women were property. They existed only for the purposes of blind servitude to a brutal male-dominated social order. Women were not allowed out of the house unless they were accompanied by a male relative at all times. Women who tried to get an education had acid thrown in their face. Rape victims were treated as criminals and thrown in jail, socially ostracized or killed in some horrible manner. This was life for women under the Taliban.
But that all changed when the calvary came in right? I mean we Americans, upholders of freedom and democracy, overthrew the evil Taliban and made life wonderful for everyone. I really hope you're getting the sarcasm and irony in all of this. Again, to be clear, my problem is not that this man was arrested, or even convicted. This misogyny and hatred has become apart of Afghan culture and will not disappear over night. Race relations in America took 400 years before things got better. My problem is that the American governement is letting this happen. There are political and other options at our disposal to secure the release of this innocent man. But our government has done nothing. It hasn't even condemned the court decision. We are content to sit here and moan about our economic woes and plummeting stock market. We're infuriated that we have to skip our daily latte from Starbucks because of shrinking wallets while this poor man rots in jail for the next three decades. Oh well, by the looks of it we'll still be in Afganistan in 2039 win he gets out, if he lives that long of course.
WAKE UP AMERICA! We have the audacity and the gall to claim that we are humanity's salvation and that we alone are the upholders of freedom and justice. One man is going to jail for throwing a shoe and another for speaking up about women's rights and we're just gonna let it happen. Historically speaking though, this isn't all that surprising. After all America has perfected the art of doing nothing in the face of injustice. America did nothing to free slaves, (the civil war was about federalism and states' rights, ending slavery was an unintended by product), it did nothing when the Nazis implemented the horrific genocide of millions in occupied Europe, (yes our government knew and took no action, no commando raids, no bombing of the train tracks that led to Bergen-Belsen or Dachau, not even a verbal condemnation because anti-semitism was rampant in the US at the time) no intervention during the 1990's genocide in Rwanda (We vowed to never let it happen again, oops but then what about Darfur?)
Don't believe the hype. This nation is no better than the rest of the world when it comes to doing the right thing. It's time to stand up and be about something more than just ourselves. America, forget what's comfortable, screw politcal expediency and for once, just once, do the right thing. Until that day comes. America is nothing but a gigantic hypocrite. Nobody likes a bigot.
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