Rant of the Week

Hamas

America is in Iraq to bring freedom and democracy.
Why, when I see our boys raise the flag and salute--- my heart just cramps all over.

There is only one example, in the Arab world, of a relatively free and fair election in which an autocratic government party was overthrown and replaced with another government that more accurately reflected the will of the electorate. It was Hamas, when, in January 2006, it defeated Yassir Arafat's old party, Fatah, in elections in Palestine.

The reaction of the United States, which is determined to bring democracy and freedom to the Arab world? It denounced the results of the elections and encouraged Fatah to arm themselves in anticipation of an uprising.

This is not made up. This is not fantasy. This is not some satirical Hollywood movie. This is real U.S. foreign policy in action and if you still like to stand on your podium with your flag and your torch and your patriotic heart and recite all those platitudes about why the West is fighting terrorism, you deserve to be disillusioned.

The truth has always been that America is far more interested in promoting strategic alliances in the middle east than in any kind of democracy or freedom or even capitalism, if that gets in the way of the oil. How else would you explain U.S. policy towards Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, and so on and so on and so on?

As if the January 2006 election wasn't ironic enough, the only other Arab government that is even remotely democratic is Iran. You may not like Ahmadinejad but, so far, he hasn't tried to appoint his own son as his successor (unlike our so-called friends in Egypt, Libya, and Syria).