Beklager den voldsomme titel, men lejligheden kræver det.
Mark LeVine, professor i historie ved University of California og Reza Aslan, som bl.a. er forfatter af bogen “Kun en Gud”, rammer hovedet gentagne gange på sømmet i et fælles indlæg på Al Jazeera English:
However noble and justified the United States’ intentions may be in launching an attack on a dictator who has murdered his own people and supported international acts of terrorism, the hypocrisy and inconsistently with which the Obama administration has dealt with the so-called “Arab Awakening” risks generating as much ire in the region as did the invasion of Iraq, especially among the young people who have led the pro-democracy revolutions that have inspired the world.
If there is one thing that the Arab world’s “Facebook Generation” does not suffer, it is hypocrisy, either by its own governments or by its foreign allies and patrons.
Yet it is impossible not to recognise the rank hypocrisy in supporting the rights of anti-government protesters in Libya, while turning a blind eye to the same in Bahrain, where government troops have massacred dozens of unarmed civilians; in Yemen, where the regime of president Ali Abdullah Saleh has been firing live ammunition into peaceful crowds; in Saudi Arabia, whose military has been sent into neighbouring countries to brutally suppress people’s demand for the most basic rights and freedoms; in the Palestinian territories, where non-violent demonstrations for an end to Israeli settlements have been completely ignored by an American administration who, until recently, vowed that a settlement freeze would form the basis of its Middle East policy.
In announcing the military strikes against Colonel Gaddafi, Obama declared that the United States “cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people that there will be no mercy, and his forces step up its assault on innocent men and women [who] face brutality and death at the hands of their own government.”
He reiterated this theme in his latest speech.
Does the president not recognise the irony of those words, which could be applied to any one of America’s dictatorial allies in the Middle East?
Problemet er, at Obama-regeringens troværdighed som forkæmpere for eller blot støtter af demokrati efterhånden lander på et stort, rundt og hårdt tilkæmpet nul. Hvordan kan man sige, at man ikke vil acceptere, at en diktator myrder sit folk – for blot at bede “begge sider” vise tilbageholdenhed, når regeringen med saudisk hjælp myrder folk på gaden i Bahrain? Hvordan kan man komme ud med en helhjertet støtte til den problematiske “grønne bevægelse” i Iran – blot for at sige, at “Yemens stabilitet er vigtig”, når snesevis af demonstranter bliver dræbt på gaden dér, som det faktisk skete forleden?
Men, læs ikke kun det, jeg citerer herover, læs hele Levines og Aslans indlæg. Der er mere – der er f.eks. det her:
Mr. Obama’s speech did nothing to address the inconsistencies in America’s response to the so-called “Arab Spring”.
And at the meeting of “allies” behind the no-fly zone in London, secretary of state Clinton’s declaration that, “it is obvious to everyone that Gaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead” betrayed irony and hypocrisy in equal measure, since by any reasonable definition of “legitimate” few if any leaders in the Arab world have “legitimacy to lead”.
At the same time, by refusing to become a party to the International Criminal Court, the United States undermines the legitimacy of the ICC as a venue for trying Gaddafi for crimes against his people, as allies like Britain have suggested.
Link: Zenga zenga, Mr. Obama