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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRobert Scheer: Where’s Saddam Hussein When the U.S. Needs Him?
from truthdig:
Wheres Saddam Hussein When the U.S. Needs Him?
Posted on Jun 23, 2014
By Robert Scheer
John Kerry was doing his best Casablanca impersonation, pretending to be police Capt. Renault and was just shocked that Egypt is still a brutal military dictatorship despite our newly revived historic partnership.
A day after chatting it up in Cairo on Sunday with now-elected dictator Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who, Kerry assured the world, gave me a very strong sense of his commitment (to) a re-evaluation of human rights legislation (and) a re-evaluation of the judicial process, the secretary of state felt compelled to release a statement condemning that process.
Although the U.S. government has managed to overlook the Egyptian militarys brutal destruction of the Arab worlds most significant attempt at accommodating religious, ethnic and tribal differences through representative government, the stiff sentences meted out Monday to three Al-Jazeera journalists, all veterans of Western news organizations, have finally shocked the media establishment. They also embarrassed Kerry, who had come to Cairo to curry favor with the military dictatorship. The State Department released the following statement of condemnation under his name:
Todays conviction and chilling, draconian sentences by the Cairo Criminal Court of three Al Jazeera journalists and 15 others in a trial that lacked many fundamental norms of due process is a deeply disturbing set-back to Egypts transition. Injustices like these simply cannot stand if Egypt is to move forward in the way that President al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Shoukry told me yesterday that they aspire to see their country advance. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/wheres_saddam_hussein_when_the_us_needs_him_20140624
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Robert Scheer: Where’s Saddam Hussein When the U.S. Needs Him? (Original Post)
marmar
Jun 2014
OP
KG
(28,748 posts)1. the arab world seems to be finally realizing it can just flip-off the west.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)2. du rec.
malaise
(267,455 posts)3. Folks in the Middle East well know that the West has never
given a flying fugg about freedom or democracy. It has always been about Western national interests -power and resources. Everything else is farce.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)4. We seem to have squandered our credibility in the Middle East
I wonder how that happened?