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Yet another fine example of American Exceptionalism.
For the past few weeks we have heard the US government give near daily comments on the various Middle East protests taking place. Hillary and Obama, along with their Congressional counterparts all chiming in on how Iran, Bahrain and Libya must allow peaceful protests, more like those of Tunisia and Egypt.
Of course when it comes to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen, those places that have US boots on the ground, things are decidedly different. You do not hear about 300 protesters in Iraq being arrested, nor do you hear Clinton saying that Iraq must allow peaceful protests to take place, in fact you hear nothing.
Once again, US policy and rhetoric is do as I say, not as we do.
Yet another fine example of American Exceptionalism.
For the past few weeks we have heard the US government give near daily comments on the various Middle East protests taking place. Hillary and Obama, along with their Congressional counterparts all chiming in on how Iran, Bahrain and Libya must allow peaceful protests, more like those of Tunisia and Egypt.
Of course when it comes to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen, those places that have US boots on the ground, things are decidedly different. You do not hear about 300 protesters in Iraq being arrested, nor do you hear Clinton saying that Iraq must allow peaceful protests to take place, in fact you hear nothing.
Once again, US policy and rhetoric is do as I say, not as we do.
The places we encourage peaceful "change" do not have any American soldiers already there and we cannot afford to send any. We also know these countries will market their oil through OPEC so there is little threat of disruption (down) in the price of oil. I wonder if that has anything to do with our responses.
A new government in Iraq might decide to pump oil as fast as possible regardless of what it did to prices. The Afghan non government might just let each tribe shake down the pipeline operators thus putting their investment at risk. At worst the Central Asian countries might sell directly to China and India bypassing OPEC price controls. This is why we have spent so much of our resources in these places. We are the enforcement arm of OPEC just like we were the enforcement arm of United Fruit in South America in the early 1900's. This is not hypocrisy it is just good old fashioned monopoly.
US Foreign Policy has always been a joke. I know it is very VERY complex but still I know there has to be better options that whatever policies the US is putting out there since it began.
Location: In a Galaxy far, far away called Germany
4,300 posts, read 4,406,723 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TnHilltopper
Yet another fine example of American Exceptionalism.
For the past few weeks we have heard the US government give near daily comments on the various Middle East protests taking place. Hillary and Obama, along with their Congressional counterparts all chiming in on how Iran, Bahrain and Libya must allow peaceful protests, more like those of Tunisia and Egypt.
Of course when it comes to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen, those places that have US boots on the ground, things are decidedly different. You do not hear about 300 protesters in Iraq being arrested, nor do you hear Clinton saying that Iraq must allow peaceful protests to take place, in fact you hear nothing.
Once again, US policy and rhetoric is do as I say, not as we do.
Iraq and Afghanistan has protests all the time. Unfortunately, a bomb usually goes off in Iraq when one occurs, but outside of that - that governments don't try to stop it or cause any violence. Am I misunderstanding what you are saying?
Do you have some links about these protesters being arrested or not allowed to protest in Iraq or Afghanistan? I'd like to read what's being reported before I jump to any conclusions one way or the other. Thanks.
Location: In a Galaxy far, far away called Germany
4,300 posts, read 4,406,723 times
Reputation: 2394
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jill61
Do you have some links about these protesters being arrested or not allowed to protest in Iraq or Afghanistan? I'd like to read what's being reported before I jump to any conclusions one way or the other. Thanks.
I lived for over a year in Baghdad (non-military) back in 2008 and 2009 and there were constant demonstrations. It wasn't the government or our troops that they worried about - it was the sectarian opposition or the loyalists. As for Afghanistan and Pakistan - they have demonstrations all the time and CNN even mentions them. I throw the BS flag on this one.
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