Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Over the past few weeks–since we started bombing and strafing Qaddafi’s forces in Libya–I’ve begun to suspect that the democracy movements in the Middle East were goners. What began as promising non-violent demonstrations for the removal of U.S.-supported tyrants and dictators and a new era of justice and freedom suddenly turned ugly as one after another autocratic regime fell back on violence to protect the status quo. The high-minded rhetoric of protecting civilians from imminent massacre by Qaddafi loyalists was just a thin mask to protect European and U.S. investment and access to Libyan oil: Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland and the U.S. account for approximately 75% of Libyan oil exports; Libya has the highest oil reserves in Africa; Amerada Hess and Conoco Phillips (U.S.), Total (France), Lasmo (UK), ENI (Italy), are all major partners in Libya’s oil fields; and the No-Fly zone has expanded into ongoing air strikes against ground forces–an average of 62 bombing runs a day, raising British and French concern that they’ll run out of precision-guided bombs–and it’s getting harder and harder to tell the good guys from the bad guys–violence has a way of doing that. Meanwhile, Bahrain’s security forces are brutally cracking down on protesters; in the paper this morning, an article described how even the main hospital there, Salmaniya, has become, “an apparatus of state terrorism,” where the injured along with the doctors and nurses who treat them, are hauled off to face torture or death. (Thanks to Saudi Arabia’s intervention, the Bahraini dictator’s police and “security forces” have been freed up to crack down on the protesters, and since both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are U.S. Allies, we say nothing–like the three monkeys who “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”) In Egypt, the euphoria of revolution has been replaced by the hard reality of the military once again doing what all militaries do, taking control. Protesters can no longer gather in Tahrir Square, the voices for democracy are ignored, bloggers arrested, dissent stifled. Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, even Tunisia, are reverting back to the way they were. Everywhere, it seems, the people lose, as does freedom, democracy and justice. Machiavelli was right: “Money to get power, power to protect money,” and democracy is an illusion. Maybe it always was. All around the world–and here at home–it’s business as usual. And if you’re not Business, there’s little to cheer.