The disappeared

We all now know that the ever-changing rationale for the Iraq war has now settled on a loose hybrid of the "establishing democracy" rationale and the "liberating the
Iraq people from a tyrant" rationale.

Now we're hearing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being elevated in status to that of "the new Hitler", and the Administration is gearing up for "regime change" in Iran.

Funny how the only tyrants the Bush Administration cares about are in countries awash with petroleum.

In Darfur, the genocide and violence has been going on for years, with over 200,000 dead and over a million homeless at the hands of the Janjaweed and their backers in the Sudanese government. And the U.S. sits by, giving lip service to sanctions and disapproval. Last Saturday ten African Union peacekeepers were massacred at their camp. And a State Department spokesman calls for sanctions.

Today we found out that the rebellion in Burma has been squelched through mass killing of those who opposed the ruling regime, with thousands dead, including hundred of Buddhist monks executed. And again what we hear from the U.S. is a call for sanctions.

I'm not saying the U.S. should get involved militarily in every country's conflict. But with the Iraq occupation now being painted by the Administration as, depending on the day, a humanitarian mission to implement democracy and rebuild the country we shattered, or a fight to the death against terrorists; and George Bush's stubborn clinging to the notion that it was necessary to depose the tyrant ruling Iraq, the fact that we leave people in countries not awash in oil to fend for themselves makes the American president's view of himself as the architect of freedom everywhere in the world seem to be just a wee bit disingenuous.