{"id":63777,"date":"2015-09-14T14:33:10","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T13:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=63777"},"modified":"2015-09-14T14:33:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T13:33:10","slug":"two-short-paragraphs-that-summarize-the-us-approach-to-human-rights-advocacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/09\/two-short-paragraphs-that-summarize-the-us-approach-to-human-rights-advocacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Short Paragraphs That Summarize the US Approach to Human Rights Advocacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Glenn<\/a>

Glenn Greenwald<\/p><\/div>\n

13 Sep 2015 – <\/em>In his\u00a0excellent\u00a0article<\/a> on the unique guilt-by-association standard being imposed on newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn,\u00a0my colleague Jon Schwarz\u00a0references a passage from a 2013\u00a0Washington Post<\/em> article<\/a> that I want to highlight because of how illuminating it is. That Post\u00a0<\/em>article describes\u00a0the Obama administration\u2019s growing\u00a0alliance with human-rights-abusing regimes in Africa, which allow the U.S.\u00a0to expand its drone operations there, and contains this unusually blunt admission from a \u201csenior U.S.\u00a0official\u201d (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

Human-rights groups have also accused the U.S. government of holding its tongue about political repression in Ethiopia, another key security partner in East Africa.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe countries that cooperate with us get at least a free pass,\u201d\u00a0acknowledged a senior U.S. official who specializes in Africa but spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. \u201cWhereas other countries that don\u2019t cooperate, we ream them as best we can.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Shiite rebels known as Houthis, gather at houses destroyed by a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, July 3, 2015<\/p><\/div>\n

The Post <\/em>article went on to note that\u00a0the Bush administration \u201ctook the same approach\u201d and that while \u201cmany U.S. diplomats and human-rights groups had hoped Obama would shift his emphasis in Africa from security to democracy\u00a0. . .\u00a0that has not happened.\u201d In fact, \u201c\u2018there\u2019s pretty much been no change at all,\u2019 the official said. \u2018In the end, it was an almost seamless transition from Bush to Obama.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The italicized portion of the quote explains\u00a0the crux of feigned U.S. concerns for human rights abuses: it\u2019s never genuine, never anything more than a weapon cynically exploited to advance U.S. interests. The U.S.\u00a0loves<\/em> human-rights-abusing regimes and always has, provided they \u201ccooperate\u201d:\u00a0meaning, honors U.S. dictates. On human rights abuses, such compliant regimes\u00a0\u201cget at least a free pass\u201d: at least<\/em>, meaning either passive acquiescence or active support.\u00a0The only time\u00a0the U.S. Government pretends to care in the slightest about human rights abuses is when they\u2019re carried out by \u201ccountries that don\u2019t cooperate,\u201d in which case those flamboyant objections to abuses are used by U.S. officials as punishment for disobedience: to \u201cream them as best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not remotely new, of course, nor should it be even slightly\u00a0surprising for people who pay minimal attention to the role of the U.S. Government in the world. But this nonetheless highlights what baffles me most about U.S. political discourse: how \u2013 whenever it\u2019s time to introduce the next \u201chumanitarian war\u201d or other forms of attack<\/a> against the latest\u00a0Evil Dictator or Terrorist Group of the Moment \u2013 so many otherwise intelligent and well-reasoning people are willing to believe that the U.S. Government is motivated by\u00a0opposition to human rights abuses and oppression.<\/p>\n

Support for human rights abuses and tyranny \u2013 not opposition to it \u2013 is a staple of U.S. foreign policy. Standing alone: how can anyone believe that the same government\u00a0that lavishes the Saudi regime<\/em>\u00a0with arms<\/a>, surveillance capabilities and\u00a0intelligence<\/a> is waging war or using other forms of violence in order to stop\u00a0human rights abuses? [Read this informative\u00a0New York Times<\/em> article<\/a> today describing\u00a0the central role played by the U.S. government in the ongoing, truly heinous slaughter of Yemeni civilians by its\u00a0close Saudi ally, consistent with the months of\u00a0Yemen-based reporting<\/a> done by\u00a0The Intercept<\/em> on these atrocities<\/a>].<\/p>\n

If one wants to spout the Kissingerian \u201crealist\u201d view that only U.S. interests matter and human rights abuses are irrelevant, then fine: one can make that argument cogently and honestly if amorally. But to take seriously U.S. rhetoric on human rights abuses and freedom \u2013 we\u2019re going to war against or otherwise sternly opposing these monstrous\u00a0human-rights abusers \u2013\u00a0<\/em>is totally mystifying in light of U.S. actions. The next time you\u2019re tempted to do that, just read what U.S. officials, in their rare, candid moments, themselves say about how they cynically concoct and\u00a0exploit\u00a0human rights concerns.<\/p>\n

Aside from accuracy for its own sake, this most matters because of what it means for proposed American \u201chumanitarian wars.\u201d Even if\u00a0you accept the extremely dubious proposition that the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0could<\/em>\u00a0manipulate political outcomes for the better with bombs and military\u00a0force in complex, far-away countries, it utterly lacks the desire<\/em>, the\u00a0will<\/em>,\u00a0to do that; it wants only to ensure those outcomes serve its interests, which more often than not means supporting<\/em> despotism or, at best, chaos and disorder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the feigned U.S. concern for humanitarianism in Libya \u2013\u00a0we are so very eager to protect the Libyan People from abuse and tyranny and bring them freedom\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 extended only to dropping bombs on that country and completely disappeared the moment that fun, glorious part was over. Even though it\u2019s self-satisfying to believe your government is some sort of crusader for human rights and freedom, it\u2019s not\u00a0asking too much to just be as honest about U.S. exploitation of human rights concerns as this \u201csenior U.S. official\u201d was when talking to The Washington Post.<\/em><\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

Glenn Greenwald: \u2709glenn.greenwald@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Support for human rights abuses and tyranny – not opposition to it – is a staple of U.S. foreign policy. Standing alone, how can anyone believe that the same government that lavishes the Saudi regime with support is waging war or other using forms of violence in order to stop human rights abuses?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}