The Big Lie

Dear Mr. President,

With all the armed drones you’ve got to kill terrorists, one would think you’d whip a few over to Bahrain where there’s some bad guys who need to be whacked. Bahrain, where thousands of protesters who wanted freedom and a better future were arrested and tortured, some killed; where yesterday the court upheld the conviction of doctors who treated pro-democracy demonstrators; where last week an 11-year old boy was released after being jailed for nearly a month for participating in demonstrations—he goes on trial next week. Oh, that’s right, this is Bahrain, our friend and ally who lets us park our Fifth Fleet in their country—they’re the good guys and the pro-democracy people the bad guys. OK, how about a drone to the Negev where the Israeli government just bulldozed a Bedouin village, Al-Araqeeb, for the 38th time? (Those Bedouins are either stubborn or stupid, they keep rebuilding.) They’ve been there for centuries but Israel can’t recognize them or they’d have to recognize a lot of other Arabs kicked off their land. This—like Gaza—is genocide, but once again, Israel is our friend and ally so we turn a blind eye to their crimes against humanity. Do you ever get the feeling we’re supporting the wrong guys? I do. I see the same hypocrisy in U.S. foreign policy as in domestic policy. I see that not only was Hope, Change and Transformation The Big Lie, but maybe the American freedom-and-justice-for-all thing is a myth and a lie. I see the same double standard at home applied to the rest of the world where we protect the corporate oligarchy (“our national interests” in D.C.-speak) and crush dissent—like the Occupy movement that fizzled after our security forces goons bashed some heads and broke some bones. I think you did a number on us, Mr. President, gulling us into thinking Hope and Change was just around the corner while you put in place everything you needed to suppress any real uprising. All your seductive promises of the rule of law and a new era of freedom and justice were just to get you into office and once there it didn’t take long, just 3 ½ years, to dismantle 230 years of democracy. Amazing! We now have our very own despot in the White House, one who decides what freedom is, who’s guilty and who’s innocent, who lives and who dies. Justice is now what you say it is. The same for democracy; it’s not about equality, cooperation and the common good, just power and authority. The future looks pretty bleak from out here, Mr. President.