Neoconservatives rail against Eritrean dictator Isaias Afewerki
Hah, just kidding. Neocons don’t even know where Eritrea is.
Afewerki announced in May 2008 that elections would be postponed for “three or four decades” or longer because they “polarize society.” All forms of media are controlled by the government. At least 10 local journalists remain in prison since their arrests in 2001.
(Link: Parade)
Remember, the Neocon playbook says that dictators are only bad if they rule nations that have resources we want and aren’t providing them to us. Sure, they know Robert Mugabe is a bad guy, but Zimbabwe is strategically uninteresting to them. Not like Cuba – they can win votes for singling out Cuba.
No honest person could say that Raul Castro is worse than Robert Mugabe, or Omar Al-Bashir, or Than Shwe, not if they did a moment’s worth of research. And the idea that Cuba poses any kind of strategic threat to the United States is ludicrous.
Even more flagrant is the demonization of Honduras’s Manuel Zelaya. He had the temerity to hold a non-binding public poll – called by some a referendum – as to whether the constitution should be amended to remove presidential term limits. Somehow, this legitimizes the military coup (which has implemented strict press restrictions that did not exist under Zelaya) in the minds of Neocons (and non-libertarian GOP nationalists in general). Why? Because he’s an ally of Castro and Chavez, and a populist (leftist). Now find me a single quote from any neocon about Choummaly Sayasone, president of communist Laos, a single-party state. Go on. Find me one, single, solitary quote about Sayasone, and how his communist regime in Laos must be toppled. Remember, Nixon bombed the living crap out of Laos because they were communist and adjacent to Vietnam. Now that Laos and Vietnam are friendly trading partners, the idea of democracy in Laos, that we equipped thousands of Laotians to fight and die for, is no longer worth thinking about.
Any honest assessment of Neocon priorities reveals the following:
1. US Corporations must be allowed to acquire any valuable natural resources any nation might have.
2. Any world leader who criticizes US foreign policy must be deposed.
That’s it. Threat assessment is not a factor – otherwise they would be considering the danger posed by Pervez Musharraf’s nukes. Same goes for “democracy” and “freedom” – you don’t see them rail against Swaziland’s King Mswati III, Africa’s only absolute monarch (with 13 wives last time I counted).
Neoconservatism is about two things – money and pride. But that’s pretty much all conservative politics in a nutshell.
Tags: Castro, Choummaly Sayasone, Cuba, dictators, Eritrea, Foreign Policy, Honduras, Isaias Afewerki, Laos, Neoconservatives, Pakistan, Robert Mugabe, Swaziland, Zelaya
spot on. they dont have principles. Just campaign rhetoric and gutter tactics.
Would that Xstryker actually knew something about Honduras before he decided to write about it. Article 239 of the Honduran constitution states that the President can only serve one term and that anyone who proposes to reform this disposition, directly or indirectly, immediately ceases in his position and is ineligible for any public function for 10 years. Unfortunately, the Honduran Constitution does not have a provision for immediate impeachment, so the Supreme Court and Congress went about removing former President Zelaya in the only fashion it could. He was replaced by the proper person, the leader of the Congress, who is not running in the upcoming presidential election. It wasn’t a military coup, because civiliams are still firmly in control;; the military was used only to execute the order to depose Mr Zelaya.
Of course, a real military coup wouldn’t have put Mr Zelaya on a plane out of the country; a real military coup would have put him in a box under the ground.
Most Latin American constitutions have strict provisions on term limits for their presidents, due to the history of so many “presidents-for-life” that they’ve been forced to suffer.
If you think we neocons aren’t concerned about Pakistan, you are very mistaken; we just don’t have a good alternative in there. But someone actually informed about the situation would know that President Musharraf has been out of office for over a year now.
Hah, so you admit that you don’t care about Eritrea or Swaziland or Laos. Democracy only matters when it’s economically strategic with you people.
In re: Honduras, here’s a comment from the same post you link to:
Now of course, if there was any such language in the US Constitution, you’d decry it as creating a thought crime. Your opposition to Zelaya has NOTHING to do with constitutional interpretation. It is all about two factors – 1. Money 2. Pride – That is fucking it and you know it.
And yes, I apologize for forgetting about the Pakistani election. I am aware of it, I listened to dozens of stories about it on NPR, and after doing several hours of research on Afewerki and Sayasone, I didn’t stop to refresh my memory on the subject. I forgot, good catch, yada yada yada – but I’m not the one who needs to prove that my value system isn’t entirely subjective.
Xstryker you is a fool!