Progressive World Review

What can be made of the recent “revelations” that Syria, with North Korea’s help, is building a nuclear program, presumably to obtain nuclear weapons?  First of all, what do we really know about this program?  Is it for real?  We’ve been down this road before.  Does anybody remember Colin Powell’s United Nations speech where Powell presented supposedly irrefutable evidence of Saddam Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction program?  Glenn Greenwald in his usual superb analysis exposes the media’s typical lack of skepticism of the administration’s assertions and accusations,

There are multiple reasons why substantial skepticism is warranted concerning the Bush administration’s claims that the structure which Israeli jets destroyed inside Syria last September was a nuclear reactor Syria was developing with the aid of North Korea. Such skepticism, however, is difficult to find in most (though not all) American press accounts, which do little other than repeat Government claims without challenge.

This Associated Press article, for instance, is 32 paragraphs long, yet it contains little other than unchallenged assertions by the Bush administration, using the now-familiar media conventions for disseminating government claims — i.e., quoting administration accusations without challenge and then granting completely unwarranted anonymity to “intelligence officials” to echo those accusations:

Not to suggest that there isn’t cause for concern here but it would be nice if we could examine all sides of the issue before deciding on the proper course of action.  A clear majority of Americans believe that invading Iraq was a mistake.  The New York Times has issued their own mea culpa regarding their critical lack of skepticism over Bush’s rationalizations for going to war, so you might think that we’d learn from past mistakes and examine the circumstances more critically but then again, we never do seem to learn anything from our errors.

But what I really want to focus on here are two issues.  Let’s assume the story is true and Syria really is developing a nuclear weapons program, first, why are we, and Congress, only hearing about it now, seven months after the Israeli airstrike that destroyed Syria’s reactor?  From the Associated Press article breaking the story,

Seven months after Israel bombed the site, the White House broke its silence and said North Korea assisted Syria in a secret nuclear program and that the destroyed facility was not intended for “peaceful purposes.”
…
This is a serious proliferation issue, both for the Middle East and the countries that may be involved in Asia,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich. 

Hoekstra and Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, told reporters after the closed briefing that they were angry that the Bush administration had delayed informing the full committee for so long.

Certainly members of the Intelligence Committee should be fully informed of any information concerning America’s security.  And that a nation labeled as terrorist (true or not), is developing nuclear weapons would certainly qualify as a security risk.  But yet again Bush disregards the constitutional separation of powers and keeps vital information from the American people and those elected to represent them.  It is impossible to overstate the significance of this.  It is completely unacceptable for the Executive branch to operate under this level of secrecy but for Bush and Cheney this is just par for the course.

The other point I wanted to bring up has to do with the law of unintended consequences.  Instead of trying to be good world neighbors, instead of trying to find common ground, this country has tried ceaselessly to shape the world in our own image and to manipulate the world to our own ends.  And by our I don’t mean the everyday working Americans to whom this country belongs but rather those privileged few who feel this world is their oyster.

Contrary to the inane drivel spouted endlessly by the coddled and disconnected political class, the reason why so many people in this world hate us is isn’t because “they hate our freedoms,” there are plenty of other democracies on this planet that aren’t being attacked by terrorists.  No, the reason they hate us is because our armies are in there countries.  We turn a blind eye when our allies like Israel, India and Pakistan develop nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, a treaty that we signed.  We invade and destroy sovereign countries on trumped up pretexts.  And then we cry foul when they want to develop their own weapons.  Not only is this hypocritical and immoral but it’s going to bite us in the ass in the long run.  America, as an empire will fall because all empires fall.  And when we’re no longer the biggest dog on the block, then we’ll wish we had acted more responsibly and with more concern for the rest of the people we share this planet with.  Let’s hope it’s not too late then.

–Paul Wilden

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