Delaware Liberal

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.

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