Anger is a legitimate emotion in the face of injustice. Passive acceptance of evil is not a virtue.
Monday, June 22, 2009
--The House voted 405-1 today for a resolution in support of the Iranian dissidents and condemning the ruling government. And the one man who opposed it was...Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).
"Of course I do not support attempts by foreign governments to suppress the democratic aspirations of their people, but when is the last time we condemned Saudi Arabia or Egypt or the many other countries where unlike in Iran there is no opportunity to exercise any substantial vote on political leadership? It seems our criticism is selective and applied when there are political points to be made."
The US is an empire. It is not in the interest of an empire to have any democratic movement anywhere in the world; because the empire loses control. We have the situation of democracy, and we have a situation in US of an empire. This is a democratic country where we have leaders who don’t believe in democracy. In the end it’s very destructive to the Middle East. US intervention has really prevented democracy from flourishing in the Middle East for the last 50 years. The US has backed regimes which have been very undemocratic. In the end, empires which behave in such ways end up destroying themselves. And as an American, I’m very concerned with the arrogance that the leaders show towards that; I know those arguments. I believe in democracy, and I see leaders and intellectuals who do not. If you really believe in democracy, you have to accept anything they (the people) want. If the Iranians want Ahmedinajad, that’s their business. It’s like if I say I don’t like Bush as president, I couldn’t stand to that. I would never vote for him, but I have to accept that more than half of the people in the country voted for him. If I really believe in democracy I have to accept that in this country, and every other country in the world people have the right to vote for the leaders they want, regardless of how good or bad. It’s something that the US won’t accept as a government because it’s an empire, and it’s looking out for its imperial interests. In my opinion, that is harming the democratic process in the US.
"Of course I do not support attempts by foreign governments to suppress the democratic aspirations of their people, but when is the last time we condemned Saudi Arabia or Egypt or the many other countries where unlike in Iran there is no opportunity to exercise any substantial vote on political leadership? It seems our criticism is selective and applied when there are political points to be made."
ReplyDeleteHe is so right about that.
The US is an empire. It is not in the interest of an empire to have any democratic movement anywhere in the world; because the empire loses control. We have the situation of democracy, and we have a situation in US of an empire. This is a democratic country where we have leaders who don’t believe in democracy. In the end it’s very destructive to the Middle East. US intervention has really prevented democracy from flourishing in the Middle East for the last 50 years. The US has backed regimes which have been very undemocratic. In the end, empires which behave in such ways end up destroying themselves. And as an American, I’m very concerned with the arrogance that the leaders show towards that; I know those arguments. I believe in democracy, and I see leaders and intellectuals who do not. If you really believe in democracy, you have to accept anything they (the people) want. If the Iranians want Ahmedinajad, that’s their business. It’s like if I say I don’t like Bush as president, I couldn’t stand to that. I would never vote for him, but I have to accept that more than half of the people in the country voted for him. If I really believe in democracy I have to accept that in this country, and every other country in the world people have the right to vote for the leaders they want, regardless of how good or bad. It’s something that the US won’t accept as a government because it’s an empire, and it’s looking out for its imperial interests. In my opinion, that is harming the democratic process in the US.
ReplyDeleteFinally, a voice of reason!
ReplyDeleteYasmin was right about Ron Paul
ReplyDelete