A sea of troubles

[muckefuck]

A Friend (IRL, an acquaintance) posted in his LJ:

Well, I'm not an Iraqi mother trying to comfort her children right now. She must be the most sorrowful creature on the planet right now.

I didn't want to respond there, because it would've sounded crass, but I don't agree. The most sorrowful creatures on the planet are suffering in countries where there are no reporters "embedded" in platoons or holed up in hotels in the capital waiting for footage of aerial bombardment. The EU is not meeting to discuss reconstruction of their devastated homelands and there isn't a raft of NGOs waiting to play watchdog during the occupation. The world has forgotten them, and they know it.

Cold comfort to the Iraqis, of course, but worth keeping in mind as we focus minutely on one trouble spot on a troubled globe.

Comments

pitiful

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

I grieve for the Iraqi mother. I grieve for the Iraqi elderly. I grieve for the millions that madman and his family have murdered. I remember that we helped keep the Madman in power. I remember that we gave him money and arms with which to stave off the Ayatollahs as Militant Islam attempted to move westward. Yes, I remember and I grieve.

The News and the press are full of Iraq and remind of the millions that will loose their lives. I wonder…

Why haven’t I seen anything about the 2 million + that will starve to death in Ethiopia? Why haven’t I heard anything about the brutal torture and literal enslavement of Christians in Sudan? Hmmm…Wanna buy a nice Sudanese Bed Boy? I remember, but I guess I am just a grain of sand in the conscience of the world.

OH YES…What **I** did forget was the fact that Ethiopia has no resources, no oil like Iraq, and maybe Bush would like a nice Christian Sudanese Bed Boy.

Re: pitiful

[bunj.livejournal.com]

The Sudanese government also doesn't have WMD, and they are currently cooperating with us in our search for terrorists (mostly out of fear, but they are cooperating). Besides, if so many countries get mad at us when we invade a dangerous nation, what will they do if we invade one that is just royally fucked up?

Re: pitiful

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

What seems to have escaped a lot of people is that the WMDs and the resources are linked. Some pundit said that if Iraq produced eggplants instead of oil, then we wouldn't be invading it. Well, DUH! If it didn't produce oil, it would be too fucking poor to buy enriched flour, much less enriched uranium! Like Sudan. I shudder to think how the southern Sudanese would be suffering if their government had access to Saddam's arsenals.

Re: pitiful

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

I am not sure I understand your logic here. Its ok to sell Christians to Muslims as slaves, so long as you cooperating with the needs of the US Government? If that's the case, I want to order 3 Sudanese boys, can I have a catalogue so I can decide how I want them...height/age/length of dick...

The very reason we are in Iraq is that we helped this Madman get to where he is...Nah...to hell with Iraq...just give me the Sudanese boys...

Re: pitiful

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I think what he's saying is that it's understable that we hear more about countries that can directly threaten us than those who only threaten their neighbours. How about you? Do you pay more attention to news of drive-bys in Oakland than you do to reports of fagbashings in the Castro? Why?

Why privilege Sudan? Because they have chattle slavery? Southeast Asian sex slavery isn't a damn bit prettier. And speaking of Southeast Asia, how much have you heard about Thailand's War on Drugs, which has resulted in over 1,000 deaths after a month?

Re: pitiful

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

You wrote: << How about you? Do you pay more attention to news of drive-bys in Oakland than you do to reports of fagbashings in the Castro? Why?>>
*I* pay more attention to issues in the Castro. Why? Because its my neighborhood.
You are right...I chose to use the actions of the Sudan, because *I* am more familiar with them.
However, Its not dissimilar... we support Thailand and they have sexual conscripts...girls sold by their parents to be slaves. We do nothing about it...why?

OTOH, no one is selling the Christians to the Sudanese
Slavers. The Muslim Sudanese are going and destroying Christian communities, taking the young people and selling them. I don't think the Thai's are raiding villages looking for sex slaves to kidnap and sell.

Our government is very aware of what is going on in the Sudan. They are turning a blind eye…why?

BTW, its good to be back in contact...


Turkey refuses to 'fes up to the Greco-Armenian Genocide. The USA refuses to recognize the Anatolian Genocide because it would make an "ally" angry. Some ally, eh?

Re: pitiful

[bunj.livejournal.com]

You may want to check out an article from last week's Economist (available at their website: www.economist.com) entitled "Feeling America's fly-whisk". It only talks briefly about Sudan, but it does say that pressure from America (mostly because of terrorism) is bringing the different forces to the bargaining table. It's a start.

Re: pitiful

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you are right.

I think that the reality here is that our foreign policy, is opportunistic.
If you have a strategic position like Turkey, or oil like Saudi Arabia, then you get lots of financial help, and it doesn’t matter if you rape and pillage, commit genocide, throw homosexuals out of helicopters, or sell
Christians as slaves. You have something we need and so we turn a blind eye. The rest of the world may know, see, hear, and vocally express its ire, but the good old US of A neither sees, nor hears nor cares about the screams of the tortured. Its ok if you let our military live on your soil, or you give us your natural resources.

One the strategic positioning of your country is gone, and the resources have dried up, your government become "oppressive" and it is necessary to "topple your government", "free" your people", and bring the "light of democracy" to your mud huts, and your illiterate peasants.

This system gets us what we need. Maybe that’s all that counts…gee, I hope not.

Re: pitiful

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I think you may have touched on one of the fundamental contraversies in political science: Engagement or isolation? When there's a regime doing thing you don't like, do you oppose and undermine it; contain and isolate it; or engage it and hope to exert a beneficial influence? If the USA were truly totally opportunistic, I don't think it would pressure Turkey, China, and Egypt, to pick some egregious offenders, on human rights as they do. (The case of Turkey is an especially striking argument for engagement: When the EU holds out hope of membership, it moves to clean up its act; when it doesn't, Turkey backslides.)

Another problem is that a lot of our foreign policy is hostage to special interest groups. The Anti-Castro Cubans are one of the most powerful examples of this, but hardly the only one; a strong Armenian lobby in the USA has hampered aid and involvement in Azerbaijan--with its tremendous underexploited reserves of oil--for instance. Domestic political considerations like these also help prevent foreign policy from being as consistent or as rights-based as we'd like it to be.