US Hypocricy

"With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, we're sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike," – Dick Cheney says in an apparent warning to Iran.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/05/11/cheney-warns-iran-with-_n_48248.html

These kinds of statements will just give more ammo to the hardliners in Iran. Cheney is a fool if he thinks this will intimidate Iran into backing off on the nuclear stand-off.

Which brings me to the issue of who is right on the nuclear weapons issue? As much as I admire so many aspects of American society today and abhor the regressive Arab society, I am very uncomfortable with the US foreign policy and its self-arrogated role of policeman of the world.

When the US and other nuclear powers continue to hold their nuclear weapons it is downright unfair of them to expect others not to pursue the same. Every country, no matter what kind of regime is there, has the right to defend itself and pursue all means for the same. The US has no right to ask Iran or North Korea to abandon their weapons programs, leave alone India and Pakistan. And why is it quiet about Israel’s weapons. Just because it is an ally?

A related issue is the US’s doublespeak on freedom, human rights and democracy. No one should be fooled into believing that the US believes in upholding these. The only thing US foreign policy strives for is US interests which, frankly speaking, is what every country should strive for. And in keeping with this policy the US has ignored human rights violations by allies (Israel being the prime example) and has plotted against democratically elected governments which were anti-US (lots of examples here incl. many South American leftist govts.). It has also propped up and tolerated autocratic regimes friendly to itself. Don’t forget that the US supported Saddam and Iraq up to the Gulf War just because he was anti-Iran. The irony is that Saddam was a dictator and in Iran there was a popular regime which, though not elected, had the people’s support. What was Iran’s crime? That it had thrown out an unpopular ruler who was friendly to the US and put in place a dispensation which was anti-US (what else can you expect if you were the biggest supporter of the unpopular ruler). And we can’t forget it’s misadventure in Afghanistan which has fuelled Islamic terrorists and its continued support for autocratic Pakistan (incl. threatening democratic India with a warship in the 1971 war. Thank God the Russians thwarted them)

The US can say whatever it wants but it doesn’t care a fig about others, it only cares for its self interest. Unfortunately it takes a short-term view on securing its interests and those actions return to haunt it later.

India is no saint on these fronts but I will write about that some other time.