For decades now the US has been seen by the world as a shining beacon of democracy around the world….a champion of democracy and freedom….and many Americans still believe that is true….
But there is a stat that many people have NO idea about and they need to know that all is not as perfect as they think….
For decades, the American people have been repeatedly told by their government and corporate-run media that acts of war ordered by their president have been largely motivated by the need to counter acts of aggression or oppression by “evil dictators.” We were told we had to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator. We had to bomb Libya because Muammar Gaddafi was an evil dictator, bent on unleashing a “bloodbath” on his own people. Today, of course, we are told that we should support insurgents in Syria because Bashar al-Assad is an evil dictator, and we must repeatedly rattle our sabers at North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin because they, too, are evil dictators.
This is part of the larger, usually unquestioned mainstream corporate media narrative that the US leads the “Western democracies” in a global struggle to combat terrorism and totalitarianism and promote democracy.
I set out to answer a simple question: Is it true? Does the US government actually oppose dictatorships and champion democracy around the world, as we are repeatedly told?
Source: US Provides Military Assistance to 73 Percent of World’s Dictatorships
The truth is the the US is propping up more dictators than democratic regime…..and for a year now it is getting worse…..
In Saner Thought 
Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
Aye, you’re right there.
Though we like to think of ourselves as pure and driven by good intentions, there are sufficient examples of American interference in the political processes of many countries to advance our sense of desireable democratic values that one has to raise an eyebrow to the hypocrisy or incredible blindsidedness of upset over Russian interference in our political processes.
Though he was a Marxist and member of their Socialist Party (for an example of US interference) Chilean President Allende was elected by the Chileans to that office. His American-sponsored replacement, Pinochet, was a monster who “disappeared” dissidents and political enemies in the government. This Wikipedia discussion of the time is attached for those who are not familiar with it or who are to young to know about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende
Then there is the invasion of Panama during George H.W. Bush’s presidency. We snatched their President, brought him to the US, tried him for his involvement in drug trafficking, and held him for years in prison. I still don’t understand what legal justification there was to that business….
I’m sure there are more than enough examples of our interference in other countries’ political processes to make our upset over the Russian inference in our last Presidential election to come across abroad as a chance for people in other countries to scoff and enjoy the irony. Schadenfreude is a word created by the Germans to cover such moments. No, I don’t like that!
Grenada was the one that I got the biggest laugh…….chuq
It totally baffled me. It was to rescue medical students from political unrest, wasn’t it? I looked it up and this line stuck out: “From the U.S. perspective, a justification for the intervention was in part explained as ‘concerns over the 600 U.S. medical students on the island’ and fears of a repeat of the Iran hostage crisis.” Still seems a bit specious.
Plus the new airport under construction by Cuban workers….it would let jets land…that was the weakest link for me….chuq
It has always been much like that, at least since 1945. It seems the world has to choose a side, and if a country chooses the wrong side, America changes their minds for them. (And on the other side, the Soviets did much the same thing.) The cycle continues, getting ever larger.
Best wishes, Pete.
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Great post! Are you kidding? You can’t stand for what you don’t are of have! 😳
Thanx my friend….I appreciate the re-blog….hugz…..chuq
THanx for the link to IST….chuq