Time to Stop Deferring to Federal Authority

Wednesday, March 16, 2010
Time to Stop Deferring to Federal Authority
by Jacob G. Hornberger

With Saudi Arabia's military intervention into Bahrain, the dark side of U.S. foreign policy becomes even more exposed. The purpose of the Saudi intervention is to prop up the brutal dictatorship in Bahrain, one of the many dictatorships that the U.S. government has long supported as part of its imperial foreign policy.

Of course, it goes without saying that the Saudi regime also ranks among the longtime brutal and corrupt U.S.-supported dictatorships in the Middle East.

Imagine that: One Middle East U.S.-supported dictatorship intervening militarily to support another Middle East U.S.-supported dictatorship to put down with brutal force people who are resisting tyranny and oppression at the hands of the U.S.-supported Bahrain dictatorship.

Since the U.S. Empire has long provided foreign aid in the form of weaponry to both dictatorships, any bullets fired into demonstrators will likely have "Made in the USA" on them. It should also be pointed out that the military forces of both dictatorships will likely prove effective in suppressing opposition to Bahrain tyranny given that the militaries of both dictatorships have been trained by the U.S. military. In fact, according to the New York Times, just last week the Saudi and U.S. militaries worked together in a joint training exercise in Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of the Saudi intervention is to help the Bahrain dictatorship effect a brutal crackdown on protestors, no doubt following the model of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, whose brutal crackdown appears to be succeeding in Libya. According to the Times, Saudi officials were extremely upset with President Obama for so quickly abandoning Egypt's dictator, another longtime ally and partner of the U.S. Empire, and favoring the Egyptian protestors who were sick and tired of the brutal and cruel U.S.-supported tyranny under which they had been suffering for 30 years.

One of the amusing aspects of all this mainstream publicity disclosing the dark realities of U.S. foreign policy has been the reaction of American interventionists. How can anyone fail to laugh when he reads such palpable nonsense as the claim that the U.S. government is firmly committed to democracy but has no choice but to support dictatorships to protect our interests in the Middle East? It only goes to show how successful public schools have been in inculcating a mindset within people that so easily accepts such nonsensical thinking.

If one of the victims of these brutal U.S.-supported dictatorships responds with a terrorist attack against the United States, the response of U.S. interventionists is predictable: "It's because of Islam! It's because of the radical Muslims! It's because they hate us for our freedom and values."

If you ask an interventionist, "Do you think it might be possible that the terrorists were motivated by anger arising from the killing of their son or the rape of their daughter or the torture of their father by the cruel, brutal, and corrupt U.S.-supported dictatorship?" their response is predictable: "Oh, no. Those things don't bother Muslims at all. They are totally indifferent to the killing, torture, or rape of their families and friends at the hands of U.S.-supported dictatorships. It's really just because the Koran requires Muslims to be terrorists who hate America for its freedom and values."

The Saudi dictatorship's intervention in Bahrain to prop up its fellow U.S.-supported dictatorship should serve as another wake-up call to the American people. It's time for Americans to abandon the passive role they have played for decades with respect to U.S. foreign policy. The time has arrived to stop deferring to federal authority and take moral responsibility for moving our nation in a different direction, one that involves the dismantling of the U.S. military empire and the restoration of the American limited-government republic, non-interventionism in the affairs of other nations, and a liberation of the American private sector to interact peacefully with the people of the world.


http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2011-03-16.asp