How to Show Charles Krauthammer Up As A Hyprocrite (Updated with new link)

I might have been feeling a little guilty after reading Mr. K's latest column .

I don't like war.  I know people on both sides of the aisle (proverbally, not really anyone in Congress) who just hate war, even for great humanitarian reasons.  But, gosh darn golly all those nice people including lil' kids being oppressed, jist makes you want to do somethin'  And Krauthammer assures us that moral 'suasion' won't fix anything.  (Oh, but wait, dude, how about some 'suasion', cash, and removal from the most favored terrorist nation list or some sort of mix.)

But Chuck riffed off on the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt, calling it 'hard power' (despite the fact that even in the government's version of the 'rescue' not a shot was fired, and it looks a lot more likely that a ransom of many millions of dollars was paid for the hostages' release).

Still good old CK stretches this all out to supposedly prove that invading nations with human rights 'problems' is the only way to fix them. 

Boy, that worked so well in Iraq, didn't it.  But Big Oil got access to those great underground pools of oil; so "Mission Accomplished!"

The columnist rattles off a whole list of the bad governments as approved by the Bush administration and right wing talking points.  Since these are the bad governments that mainstream news is allowed to report on,  most Americans would likely think that he is correct. 

I sure don't want people to suffer in these countries, but hey, you know, guess what happens when you start a war?  Little kids get their heads blown off.  This happens a lot.  In fact, our latest moves (once described by a mainstream reporter as more of an air war surge than a ground troop surge) mostly entail getting info from the Iraqi government on which family house insurgents are holed up in blowing it to pieces via rockets blasted from a drone or manned aircraft.  Unfortunately, all the adults and children in the house or even part of a neighborhood may be killed in the action.

This is neo-Stalinism or even what Hitler would likely be doing if he were still alive and in power. And btw, it doesn't win hearts and minds.  So, hey, it's also failure!

Al Maliki has to say loudly that he wants a firm timetable for withdrawal to hope his party has a chance for victory in regional elections.  Where is that majority of Iraqis who want us to stay, if a leader has to shout "Get Out!" like Chef Ramsey in order to win elections?

But we need more of this?

But, about that list of nations we should be invading.

Why doesn't he talk about Equatorial Guinea?

Mr. K has left off one of the worst dictatorships in the world.

 Why? Because Big Oil is already able to get oil cheaply from that pariah nation, so it's actually our friend.

See Democracy Now "African Dictatorships and Double Standards: Where is the International Criticism Over US-Allied Equatorial Guinean Leader Teodoro Obiang? " 

Apparently, what's good for business is good for right wing pundits.

tags: charles krauthammer  equitorial guinea  hypocrisy  hard power  iraq  war  neo stalinism  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit