Thursday, January 13, 2005

US As Defender of Human Rights Discredited



For those paying attention to the US' support of murderous capitalist dictators and creation of death squads across Latin America in the 80's, the US' role as a leading abuser of human rights has been widely known. But leading human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International never seemed to focus at problems at home as much as they should have. The tide seems to be changing as recent reports by HRW and AI shed light on the insiduous of our policies of lawlessness, torture and indefinite detention.

BBC Report: US 'erodes' global human rights
LA Times: Detainee Says U.S. Handed Him Over for Torture

“Governments facing human rights pressure from the United States now find it easy to turn the tables. Washington can’t very well uphold principles that it violates itself.” - Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch

This is an important first step for any successful reversal of golbal US hegemony. After basking in its apprent "victory" in the Cold War, the US chose human rights as a vehicle to continue intervening in other countries business. Of course, the application was selective and based solely on US national interests at the time - was more commercial/economic but now shifting towards support of the US "War on Terrorism." To be the world's moral police requires the cleanest of records - something that is unsustainable with the current group in power.

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