Posted by Or… I hope Richard Nixon is Rotting in Hell
The Arab Spring. A series of demonstrations, protests and wars that has rocked the autocratic governments of the Middle East since December 2010. It has forced from control, the rulers of Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.
In Egypt, the revolution, though violent at times, never digressed into a full-on war. Most nations around the world expressed support for the protests and called for political reforms. In Libya, the USA, as part of a NATO-led force, assisted in securing victory for the Libyan rebels. Elections have been held in both nations and though the results have brought Islamist parties to power which raise eyebrows in the West, these parties now face the far more difficult challenge of ruling and providing for their citizens rather than just standing on the outside shouting slogans.
In Syria, a bloody civil war is being waged between rebel forces and President Bashar Al-Assad and his Baath Party. The Assad regime has received widespread international condemnation, including from the USA, for its bloody response to the protests of its own citizens. Neoconservatives in the USA have called for a more active role in the Syrian uprising but with costly wars winding down in Iraq and Afghanistan, there seems to be little public sentiment for further military adventurism.
In 1971, the area known as East Pakistan proclaimed itself independent from West Pakistan and established the country of Bangladesh. A bloody nine-month civil war ensued, resulting in the deaths of 3,000,000 people and rapes of 200,000 women. Eventually, my homeland won its independence (with assistance from our neighbor India).
Most of the international response to the Bangladesh Liberation War favored the Bangladeshi cause, especially as news reports began to make clear the bloody and indiscriminate slaughter of Bangalis at the hands of their former countrymen.
The notable exception was the United States under the leadership of President Richard Milhous Nixon. President Nixon supported Pakistan both militarily and diplomatically. He refused to support the Bangladeshis, calling the war an internal conflict but still saw fit to send arms and ammunition to the Pakistanis, funneled through Jordan and Iran. He ignored reports of genocide from his own diplomatic corps. Pakistan, at the time, was an ally of China and President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger only cared about using this Pakistan to open up diplomatic relations with China. The USA wouldn’t even lend our moral support! It was a stunning display of realpolitik‘s moral bankruptcy, as evidenced by the protests of the Blood Telegram, written by US Foreign Service Officers stationed in Dhaka.
Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy. Our government has failed to denounce atrocities. Our government has failed to take forceful measures to protect its citizens while at the same time bending over backwards to placate the West Pak-dominated government and to lessen any deservedly negative international public relations impact against them. Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankruptcy,(…) But we have chosen not to intervene, even morally, [emphasis mine: MH] on the grounds that the Awami conflict, in which unfortunately the overworked term genocide is applicable, is purely an internal matter of a sovereign state. Private Americans have expressed disgust. We, as professional civil servants, express our dissent with current policy and fervently hope that our true and lasting interests here can be defined and our policies redirected.
The parallel here is not drawn to advocate US military intervention in Syria. However our hearts may ache for ordinary Syrians, they should be the ones to overthrow their dictator. They should be the ones to establish a new power structure. ‘nije nije’, my oldest sister’s first words. “by myself, by myself.”
I’m largely satisfied with the response of the USA and its allies, which has been to publicly condemn the atrocities committed by the Assad regime. It’s not exactly realpolitik nor is it the naïveté of necon interventionism. It’s hard to know whether Archer Blood would have advocated direct military intervention or even arming of the Syrian rebels but, at least on this issue, our government has a better moral compass than Richard Nixon did (even if we fail in other areas).
