In case you forgot, here is what he told us:
"Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."
How ironic that the man who utilized his brother's governorship, Katherine Harris's lust for power, and a corrupt decision rendered by the Supreme Court to steal the 2000 presidential election would pontificate to Americans about democratic elections in the US and self-appointed leaders in the Middle East. Since it is a given that such a virtuous "born again" Christian could not have been lying, it is obvious that temporary amnesia prevented him from recalling voter disenfranchisement, his regime's plans to strip its citizens' freedoms with the Patriot Act, and his nearly absolute intolerance for dissent.
Reality is too Complicated to Conform to Your Fairy Tale, Mr. Bush
Why do the "terrorists" and other people of the Middle East hate us? The truth is much more complicated than George Bush's disingenuous, propagandistic explanation to the American public. However, Bush's assertion was accurate in one sense. When he said, "They hate what we see right here in this chamber," he captured the true focus of the ire of the Arab world: the US government.
Since the internal combustion engine became an indispensable aspect of economic vitality, the United States government has invaded, exploited, manipulated and cheated Arab nations in its ongoing quest to purloin their precious oil. Preying upon internal strife and ongoing unrest amongst varying factions and sects of the Islamic faith, the US government has raped the people of the Middle East for decades. Terrorism is the symptom, not the disease. Acts of retaliation against the US are the result of victimized people attempting to thwart their over-powering, deceitful oppressors in Washington.
Show Me the Democracy".
Consider the fact that the power-brokers in Washington DC have long supported, and continue to support, a repressive monarchy in Saudi Arabia known as the House of Saud. Washington maintains this incestuous relationship with these iron-fisted rulers to ensure a steady supply of crude oil and to guarantee they have an ally to host regional military bases from which to further their goal of global hegemony. (The US has recently significantly diminished its military presence in Saudi Arabia, but once it has established a stable occupation in Iraq, it is quite likely US forces will return to the Saudi Kingdom in large numbers). Over the years, the world's "champion of freedom" has consistently looked the other way as the Saudi government has enforced Shari'a Law. This ruthless monarchy has routinely flogged and imprisoned alleged homosexuals without a trial. Political parties have not been allowed allowed. The House of Saud has allowed virtually no freedom of expression. Saudi citizens have often been detained and tortured arbitrarily. Saudi women have been treated as second class citizens. With full knowledge of these human rights abuses, the US government continues to pump billions of dollars of oil money into the over-flowing coffers of the House of Saud and to provide the "muscle" to ensure that the Saudi monarchs retain power. In August, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia reported that relations with the US "couldn't be better". Leaders from both nations work tenaciously to preserve this reprehensible symbiosis.
You're Continuing to Pour Gasoline on the Fire, George
Perhaps the most poignant and timely illustration of the US government fueling Arab antipathy is Iraq. In 1963, the US helped sponsor a coup which brought Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party to power. King Hussein of Jordan has confirmed that the CIA located Iraqi Communists for the Ba'athists, who in turn tortured and killed these members of their opposition. Once Saddam came to power in 1979, the US became his staunch ally, pushing for Iran's defeat in the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980's. Providing money (via loans from Middle Eastern US allies), conventional weapons (through US allies), and the precursors to biological weapons (directly from the CDC) to Hussein (despite realizing he was committing genocide by killing tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds and using chemical weapons against Iran), the US government again showed its willingness to support a brutal tyranny to further its own interests.
Once the Iran-Iraq war ended and Hussein became expendable, the US government deftly deceived Hussein into invading Kuwait in 1990. Bush I declared Hussein to be the sworn enemy of the US and launched the Gulf War. Hussein was defeated but remained in power. Throughout the next decade, harsh UN economic sanctions spear-headed by the US resulted in the death of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. The sanctions left Hussein, their alleged target, virtually unscathed.
In 2003, Bush II, with the aid of the sycophantic Tony Blair, launched the illegal invasion and occupation of the sovereign nation of Iraq. They based their incursion on the false pretexts that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he was an ally of Osama bin Laden. Evidence abounds (i.e. the Downing Street Memos) that Bush lied to the American public and Congress so he could secure the authority he needed to expand the American Empire. In an egregious violation of international law, the US invasion has resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqi civilians, the establishment of a puppet government, and the beginning of long-term US occupation of Iraq (twelve permanent US military bases are under construction).
To summarize:
1. The US supported Hussein when he killed tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980's.
2. Economic sanctions imposed by the UN (due to great pressure exerted by the US), caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
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