After All These Years…Still Propping Up Despots
August 13th, 2008 by Wil Robinson
Claims are often made that the United States supports and funds autocratic despots in countries around the world, thwarting democracy when it doesn’t fit America’s interests. Despite an abundance of information, these links between dictators and the U.S. government are often tenuous and difficult to prove.
This gives the right-wing many excuses and arguments to use as they attempt to cast doubt on such un-patriotic claims. Americans who favor democracy only for the white Christians that can afford the capitalist brand line up with their rebuttals.
- There is no better option.
- We don’t support dictators anymore. That was in the past.
- We can’t allow Islamic terrorists to take over these countries.
- Musharraf, Abbas, Mubarak, and whoever-we’ve-put-in-charge-of-Lebanon-at-the-moment are democratically-elected leaders.
These pathetic excuses are due to a serious lack of reliable and contextual information. The 24-hour news networks, newspapers, and radio talk shows posing as objective news sources may offer 30-second spots on events in Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and even Afghanistan, but they do not provide context. A story cannot be told without linking together the pieces to see the bigger picture.
As President Pervez Musharraf faces possible impeachment in Pakistan, a country he has ruled under his thumb since his military coup in 1999, the Wall Street Journal laments the potential loss of America’s ally in the war on terror. The editorial is no more than a regurgitation of neo-conservative talking points about why America must continue ignoring human rights, creating a false reality empty of context, in order to dupe more Americans into accepting an immoral status quo.
Since they will not provide the context, I will. Below is a timeline of events all reported individually by the mainstream media but as isolated incidents, unrelated to a wider trend.
October 1999
Musharraf seizes power in a military coup, installing himself as president while simultaneously acting as general of the army. This follows the spring 1999 Kargil invasion of Indian territory which brought the two countries to the brink of nuclear war.
Winter 2001
The United States’ Department of Justice issues a memo to the White House that is well-received and implemented in the new “war on terror.” The Geneva Conventions don’t apply. Torture is okay. Half a century of international negotiations and cooperation to prevent war crimes is thrown out the window. America gives the rest of the world an ultimate that you’re either “with us or against us.”
2001 - Present
The United States uses renditions for so-called “enemy combatants.” Suspects disappear from Afghanistan - and any other country the CIA chooses, including Italy - and are never heard from again. The International Committee of the Red Cross is told the prisoners do not exist. The CIA flies suspects to third countries that will turn a blind eye to (or help with) torture. Many prisoners are sent to Pakistan, who gladly does the CIA’s dirty work.
2002 - Present
Musharraf interprets the United States’ new-found aversion to human rights as applying universally. After all, Pakistan is “with us” (hence the $14 billion in military aid and weapons since 2002). Musharraf begins to “disappear” political opposition members, journalists, and any one else in Pakistan that doesn’t like his autocratic government. The interior ministry openly admits to holding at least 5,000 political prisoners, but at least another 400 Pakistanis simply vanish. Musharraf claims they are all Islamic terrorists.
In 2006, President Bush describes Pakistan’s dictator as “siding with the forces of freedom and moderation and helping to defend the civilized world…and working to build modern democratic institutions that could provide an alternative to radicalism. And it is in America’s interest to help him succeed.”
Winter/Spring 2007
Amina Masood Janjua, the wife of one of Pakistan’s “Disappeared,” takes her case to Pakistan’s Supreme Court demanding that the government release him or, at a minimum, tell her what happened to him. Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the nation’s top justice, rules in her favor and orders Musharraf and the government to come clean on the whereabouts of Janjua’s husband and hundreds of others who have disappeared.
March 2007
Musharraf suspends Chaudhry from the Supreme Court, sparking widespread protests across the country by lawyers and liberal Pakistanis who want their democracy back. News stations are ransacked and shut down in a government-imposed censorship campaign to minimize blowback from the public.
October 2007
Musharaff is re-elected by a Parliament stuffed with his supporters from rigged elections five years prior, and despite the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of his running as president while still acting head of the army.
November 2007
Faced with the return of Benazir Bhutto, leader of the largest political party (the PPP) and a threat to his rule, Musharraf fires Chief Justice Chaudhry, declares a state of emergency, suspends the constitution, and imposes martial law. News media outlets are shut down across the country. Musharraf claims it is to stop the Islamic terrorists.
Bush responds by stating Musharraf “hasn’t crossed the line” and is “truly is somebody who believes in democracy.”
December 2007
Bhutto dies during a terrorist attack.
February 2008
Musharraf’s party is dealt a severe defeat in elections, as his party loses 72 seats in Parliament to the PPP and other moderate parties.
August 2008
Parliament moves to impeach Musharraf for misappropriation of funds. The United States’ Government Accountability Office agrees with the Pakistani Parliament.
It’s impossible to claim the U.S. doesn’t support dictators in other countries when you consider things in context.
“But wait!” the Islamophobes and imperialists cry, “there is no better option. We don’t support dictators anymore. That was in the past. We can’t allow Islamic terrorists to take over these countries. Musharraf is a democratically-elected leader.”
I’ve seen the evidence, and I won’t be fooled. The average Pakistani certainly isn’t fooled (but they hate us for our freedom, right?). If you want me to support a dictator, you’ve got to have something better than tired excuses.
Putting a gun to my head might convince me. And at the rate America is surrendering her civil liberties and accepting violence as a solution, that day probably isn’t far off.
Tags: military, freedom, united states, islam, Pakistan