Thursday, March 13, 2003
I've been watching BBC News 24 for the past couple of days and find myself rather disturbed by the attitudes of certain American polititians and 'political experts' when interviewed in that channel's 'Hard Talk' show.When asked questions regarding the legality of an attack against Iraq without a UN mandate, the resposnse of one interviewee was "We're so powerful, with such a large military force, legality is basically irrelevant."
This seems to be a recurring theme just lately. America is so powerful, the rules don't apply. Another example is the American withdrawl of support for the new International Court that's been set up to try those guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes etc. America is doing deals behind the scenes with individual countries in an attempt to make americans exempt from tiral in this court.
What kind of message is this supposed to send? "Sure, you can try foreign war criminals, but if american soldiers commit attrocities, you can't touch them, because the rules don't apply to us."
Probably the most alarming thing I heard was last night. A congressman who claimed that while Al Qaeda was a terrorist organisation that needed to be dealt with, the IRA was a legitimate military organisation because they only attacked military targets (god only knows where he gets his information from) and had a genuine political grievance against the British Government. When this rule was applied to the Pailestinians having a genuine grievance against the Israelis occupying their teritory, he completely pooh poohed the idea.
The double standards in the attitudes being displayed rather make me sick, and the consistant disregard for the rules, or international law on the grounds that they don't apply to America... it's alarming to say the least. How far can you push such attitudes before all manner of illegal activities are conducted in the name of 'democracy and freedom'? Freedom for who? America?
I know this sounds like a simple case of american bashing, but it's not really as simple as that. I have many american friends... probably more than english friends, but on a national level, I'm deeply disturbed by the political stance of that 'great' nation... the arrogance that comes with military and economic might, and the fundamentalism that's increasingly seeping into political policy. There seems to be a growing belief that any non-democratic nation is a legitimate target of military, political or economic aggression. The support of Israel is largely down to them being a democratic state, regardless of the fact that they conduct all manner of unsavoury activities, flouting international law left and right. Do you suppose they'd recieve anything like the support they enjoy if they weren't a democracy?
Condesning all of that down to the simplest terms, how far can you push it before 'the promotion of freedom and democracy' becomes the oppression of anyone who disagrees with America?
Labels: war
Steve 12:22 PM [+]
Comments:
Post a Comment
The Benway Empire |
 |