Happy Furry Puppy Story Time with Norbizness

Do As I Incoherently Say, Not As My Allies Do

From the bread-and-circuses keynote address (my only post on this meaningless sinkhole of a speech that will be forgotten one celebrity murder later): "So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."

Which led to immediate, effusive praise: "I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt because he's managed to make his ideas work so far, but he's shouldering a lot of responsibility. Made me proud to be American. I support liberty and freedom for others." (you can also take your pick of gullible simps for whom history started at noon today here)

And then there's reality in.. let's say.. the Coalition of the Willing members:

Angola: In the past year, the Angolan army has subjected civilians to extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and other mistreatment, as well as sexual violence. The Angolan army also denies civilians their freedom of movement.

Azerbaijan: The 61-page report, “Crushing Dissent: Repression, Violence and Azerbaijan’s Elections,” documents hundreds of arbitrary arrests, widespread beatings and torture, and politically motivated job dismissals of members and supporters of the opposition following the October 15 presidential election, which was widely condemned by the international community as fraudulent.

Colombia: Human Rights Watch continues to document links between units of the Colombian armed forces and paramilitary groups who have committed atrocities. Some government commanders promote, encourage, and protect paramilitaries, share intelligence, coordinate military operations, and even share fighters with paramilitary groups.

Eritrea: No private newspapers or magazines have been allowed to publish in Eritrea since September 2001. The government controls all access to information in the country, radio, television, and print. A recent survey by the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders classified Eritrea as 132nd in its index of press freedom of the 139 countries surveyed, below even Iraq. During the past year, the government implemented severe restrictions on the right to freedom of religion.

Ethiopia: The officers tied my hands and my ankles together with rope. They threw me down into the sand, and at night they torched me with electricity. When they beat me, they did it with a stick. They pushed my head into a bucket of water so I could not breathe, and I was so weak I couldn’t resist, and my hands were tied together. The hardest thing for me is that those people knew my feelings, they were also Ethiopians. They knew what they were doing to me... They tortured me like that for three days.

Uganda: The 76-page report, “State of Pain: Torture in Uganda,” documents cases of torture committed by military, intelligence, and security agents in the government’s pursuit of armed rebels. However, politicians challenging the de facto single-party state and the 18-year rule of Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, are often detained, severely beaten and threatened with death by the uncontrolled security apparatus.

Uzbekistan: Eyewitnesses said that during the past two weeks police have physically abused independent Muslim men in detention to coerce confessions. Officers beat men, hit them on the ears and genitals, burned them with lit paper and cigarettes, stuck metal pins under their fingernails, and anally raped male detainees with bottles and other objects. One man was stripped naked and beaten “until pulpy.”

And boiling... always boiling. And this doesn't even extend to best buddies like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, who were not in the Coalition of the Willing (Matt Yglesias has a more detailed taxonomy here). Then again, on second thought, maybe these fledgling little freedom-beacons are moving towards American-style liberty.

Posted by Norbizness at January 21, 2005 12:16 AM