Now that the Nobel Peace Prize committee has given Barack Obama the Miss Congeniality award, I think it would be a good time to review the President’s record on human rights:
1. In Eastern Europe, he abrogated an agreement made by his predecessor George W Bush to install a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. While nobody in Eastern Europe is particularly concerned about Iranian nukes – the stated reason for the deployment - many are very worried about a certain nuclear-armed neighbour to the east. For Eastern Europeans – and Vladimir Putin – the Eastern European missile defense installations had a huge symbolic significance, telling the Putinists, in no unmistakable terms, that Eastern Europe is in the western sphere of influence (to borrow a memorable phrase from the Molotov – Ribbentrop pact). Thanks to Obama’s unilateral and unprovoked concession to the Kremlin, many currently free people in Eastern Europe now sleep far less soundly. And, oh yeah, what did Obama get from Russia for this move? Nothing that anybody can tell.
2. In Honduras, President Obama’s wrong-headedness is most clearly on display. The trouble there began when the former president, left-wing Manuel Zelaya, was ousted from office and arrested by the Supreme Court of Honduras because he agitated for the Honduras’ constitution to be changed so that he could serve another term as president (currently presidents are limited to one term by the Honduras constitution). The Chavez wannabe was warned several times to cease and desist by the Supreme Court, which has the backing of every member of the Honduran Congress, even those of his own party. In other words, Zelaya was morphing into that typical scourge of South American politics - the populist strongman, and the forces of constitutional legitimacy decided to do something about it. Even though this conflict is about as clear-cut a choice between constitutional democracy and authoritarianism as it is possible to have, Obama is so blinded by his reflexive anti-Americanism that he has chosen to side with the anti-American would-be dictator by cutting off aid to Honduras, threatening to seize Honduran assets in the US and threatening to pull US entry visas from members of the Honduran judiciary. Finding he has more friends in high places than he thought, Zelaya has been emboldened into threatening civil unrest. In other words, thanks to Obama’s meddling, the peaceful removal of a potential dictator has been transformed into a tense standoff that could spill out into civil war. Yes we can!
3. In Washington, a tradition has developed that whenever the Dalai Lama is in Washington, he gets an audience with the President. Ever since 1991, the President has always met with him every time he visits the US capital. The last time President George W Bush awarded him a Congressional Gold Medal at a high-profile Capitol Hill ceremony. The purpose, of course, is to poke Communist China in the eye about their occupation of Tibet. This noble tradition ended last week, when President Obama refused to meet with the Dalai Lama because it might complicate his visit to China next month. Thanks to Obama’s reticence, China has learned that the US will do nothing about China’s ongoing suppression of Tibetan culture and religion.
4. In June of this year, potentially the most significant blow to Islamic fundamentalism occurred. I am of course referring to the Green Revolution that erupted in Teheran and other Iranian cities after the fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran is the only functioning country run by Islamic fundamentalists. It funds and trains most Islamic terrorist groups. Therefore if this government were to be toppled by a popular movement of its own citizenry, it would be body blow from which Islamic fundamentalism might not be able to recover. So what has Obama done ever since Iranian citizens began bravely challenging their government? Nothing. He still persists on wanting to talk to its increasingly illegitimate government. While it is true that much of what is going on inside Iran is out of America’s hands, there is nevertheless a lot that the US could do. First of all, it could loudly condemn of the mullahs. Sometimes moral support, offered at a critical juncture, is enough to push fast moving events over the cusp. Another is that it could covertly help Iranian freedom fighters. With American forces on both the Iraqi and Afghani borders, the US is uniquely well positioned to help. For instance, it could set up a string of Voice of America-type radio stations along the borders and get the CIA and SOCOM to advise and training Iranian resistance groups. There is a window of opportunity that is still open for the mullahs to be overthrown at extremely little American cost (because the revolution is continuing, even though you don’t hear much about it in the media), for the Iranians would be doing all the fighting and risktaking (as it should be in a revolution). But if our Hamlet continues to pretend the thing isn’t happening, this window will soon close.
After emperor Chimpsky II’s constant talk about exporting democracy around the world, I guess this is what Obama really means by the words “hope and change”.
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