Afghanistan and Iraq were not free, before their "liberation" (using the NeoCon Orwellian meaning of liberation, the precise opposite of the dictionary definition). And those "liberated" nations remain unfree. Our soldiers have decided there will be no elections in Iraq, not now, not for the indefinite future. Our soldiers will appoint all decision-makers, at every level, in Iraq. This is freedom? This is democracy?
Afghanistan cannot have elections, there is no possibility of any being held, given the chaos, given the total lack of any government authority anywhere outside the capital. And their authority in the capital, is entirely dependant, still, on foreign soldiers. The minute our soldiers leave, our unelected, undemocratic puppet dies. Meanwhile, we fund, train, praise the warlords, a collection of the most brutal despots on earth. This is freedom? This is democracy?
And in the U.S., we have effectively suspended the Geneva Conventions, due process, the right to a trial, the right to an attorney, the presumption of innocence. There is widespread acceptance of concentration camps, torture, assassinations, preventive detention, collective punishment, by us and our close allies, as tools in the war. We have "cut down the Law, to get at the Devil". |
