Condemn Terrorist Attacks, No Matter Who the Perpetrator Is

         I’m going to talk about the one thing that no one is talking about when it comes to the story of Malala Yousufazi, the 14 year old Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban. 

          Before I get into that, I am glad that so many governments, so many news channels, and so many people from all over the globe are united in their condemnation and utmost disgust of this attack. With it being hard for people of different faiths or races to agree on anything now in days, it is heartening to see such a diverse group of unified people on such an important issue. But, once you look closer at this, with historical context, you notice that there is something very wrong about this.

          No, I’m not saying we should not condemn this act of terrorism, that’s not my point at all. We should condemn it. My problem with it is: Why is that when a Muslim injures or kills someone in a terrorist attack, Westerners are quick to condemn that attack, but when a Westerner does the exact same fucking thing to a Muslim victim, the number of Westerners condemning the attack sharply decreases to very few people?

          Every single major U.S. news station has reported on Malala’s story, (CNN, FOX, CBS, MSNBC, etc). So why haven’t they expressed the same amount of outrage or given the same amount of coverage say when, American soldiers have shot unarmed Iraqi civilians on purpose? (Sometimes they’ve shot children in the head, the exact same thing that happened to Malala.) Why aren’t they disgusted when American soldiers bomb unarmed Afghani civilians? Why aren’t they repulsed when American drones bomb a funeral procession in Somali, or a wedding in Pakistan, or students in Yemen? Why why why why? No American has ever been able to answer me this question. No one. 

 

An Afghani child that was shot in the head by American soldiers

          This is very disturbing. The majority of Westerners, particularly the majority of Americans, have no problem with one of their fellow citizens, (Read: someone who “looks like them,”) murdering an innocent civilian that is not American, especially if that innocent civilian is Muslim, (Read: the mysterious, foreign, dangerous “Other,”). Our current culture hypes up people’s egos so much, turning them into megalomaniacs, that they honestly believe that Americans are genetically superior to every other nation in the world, so, we can do things that everyone else can’t. The rules that apply to everyone else in the world, don’t apply to us. We’re just that fucking special. 

          Now, not everyone who gives Americans a pass on terrorist attack is a self-absorbed prick. I’ve met some good, honest, nice people who do the same thing. Now why is that? Simply, it makes them feel too awkward, or too uncomfortable, to admit that their soldiers do such things. They don’t want to face the facts of all of the millions of civilians American soldiers have murdered over the decades, (centuries actually, if you want to go back to colonial times, but let’s not overwhelm ourselves here). So, they simply never talk about it. They never admit it. If someone brings it up in a debate or an argument, they physically cannot say anything else; they just sit there.

          An American being the villain and a Muslim being the victim simply cannot compute for many Americans. That is not the official narrative of the government and their media lackeys. That is not what they hear when they are growing up. So, if anyone says otherwise, (like me), I’m simply an American hating terrorist. They completely disregard all my facts, charts, graphs, testimonies, history books, etc, etc, etc, i.e. all the overwhelming evidence that I have, with name calling. How immature.      

                                            An Iraqi civilian killed by American forces       

          If we can’t condemn our own terrorists, then why do we expect every other nation in the world to condemn their own terrorists? You can’t tell someone to do something that you are not willing to do yourself. The answer goes back to the megalomaniac point earlier: “We’re Americans, we don’t have to condemn Americans for anything, because we don’t commit any terrorist acts. We are only hard workers and heroes. However, you Islamic countries, you guys are all terrorists, so you have to condemn each and every terrorist attack a Muslim commits.”

          Don’t think other nations get a pass on this either. It’s not just Americans that do this. Every single other nation has the exact same sick problem. They condemn terrorist attacks right and left, but as soon as someone of their own nation commits a terrorist attack, they fall deathly silent. Israel, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Nigeria, Mexico, Burma, etc, etc, all of them do the exact same thing.

          We, as Americans, need to get over the awkwardness and the stigma that comes with condemning our own soldiers. I have no fear of walking up to an American soldier and saying “American soldiers kill innocent civilians on purpose.” Because it’s true. Look at history, YouTube, the news, etc. The facts are on my side. No one should be afraid of saying the truth. There is nothing un-American about calling a blatant terrorist attack, a blatant terrorist attack ,even if that terrorist is an American soldier. If you are a truly principled person, then race/nationality should have no role in whether you condemn a terrorist attack or not. If it does, then that means you are truly not against terrorist attacks. You’re only against terrorist attacks, as long as the terrorist is not an American. That’s right. You support terrorism. What does that say about your morals, your character, your values? 

                                 The site of a Pakistani wedding bombed by a U.S. drone

          Think on it, and you’ll see why so many people around the world hate America. And, you’ll see that hate is not stemmed in ignorance, or jealously, no, it’s because they want us to stop killing them! Wow, who would’ve thought that killing unarmed civilians would piss people off?!    

Jordanian Dictator Doesn’t Get the Memo: Jordanians Want Democracy, not Appeasement

          First of all, before we go into the story at all, let’s get one thing straight. “King” Abdullah of Jordan is a dictator. The Western media calls him a king, to somehow make him look better than and not as cruel as the word “dictator” sounds. They do this because Abdullah is an ally of the U.S., (a.k.a does whatever the U.S. tells him to do in exchange for political, economic and military support), and as per U.S. policy, our allies never do anything wrong, ever.

          Let’s not kid ourselves here. Abdullah has absolute power over Jordan. He can dissolve anyone in the government at any time for any reason. He is not elected; he inherited his title. He is not held accountable for anything he does; neither the parliament nor the constitution can check or balance his powers at all. He received $1.02 billion dollars from the U.S. in military aid in 2009, $843 million in 2010, and an estimated $682 million in 2011, (calculations are not completely done yet for 2011). 

         

          Guess what he does with all that military aid we give him every year? If you follow my blog at all, you will know the answer to this question, and you will know that this answer fucking infuriates me more than anything else related to U.S. policy. He uses that money to pay and arm his police thugs, who violently beat up peaceful protesters, kidnap political opposition members, (often torturing them), rape women, and assassinate anyone who he deems is a “security threat,” (a.k.a. anyone who disagrees with him). 

          He uses that money to buy weapons and military vehicles from many developed countries, to completely dissuade anyone from taking up arms against the dictatorship. The military oppresses the Jordanian people, taking away their most basic human rights, leaving them at the mercy of the government. They can’t vote for their leader; Abdullah has that title for life, and then when he dies, the title just goes to his heir. They have no say in how they are governed. Sure, they “vote” for the parliament, but the parliament is completely subservient to Abdullah. They have no power, save what he feels like giving to them at a moment where it is convenient for him.

          Now that we have that established, let’s go to the main part of this post. There have been recent protests in Amman demanding political reform and that the dictator has less power.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/05/world/jordan-protest/index.html

 

           Abdullah is trying to appease them, dissolving parliament and calling for new elections. But the protesters are not satisfied with that, because that does absolutely nothing. Abdullah doesn’t want to face the fact that Jordanians want him OUT, and to bring in fair and free elections to elect their own leaders. Some of them want a liberal democracy based on Western governments, others want a constitutional monarchy, and still some others want a Sharia-based government. Whatever type of government they choose in free and fair elections will be a democracy because that is the type of government the people rightly and legitimately chose. It doesn’t have to be a liberal, Western-styled democracy to be a democracy.  

          The Western media has been largely mute on the Jordanian protests since the start of the Arab Spring. That is because reporting on the protests would make our U.S. ally look bad, so they ignore it, as the Western media is not allowed to make our “allies” look bad. They also point to the fact that there have not been as many protests in Jordan as say, Egypt or Yemen. Their conclusion is that most Jordanians are content with the government since they are not coming out in large numbers.

          But that’s not the case. The reason why there have not been as many protests is because the Jordanian security forces have a stranglehold on anyone who opposes them. They kidnap and torture protest organizers before they even get onto the streets. They snuff out any opposition before it can get anything going. They buy off people who would oppose them. They brutally crack down on the small amount of protests that have popped up, to scare other people to not oppose the government. The government has been quite effective in keeping a tight lid on dissatisfaction, because they know that if they let things grow too much, they’re going to end up like Tunisia or Egypt, or maybe even Libya or Syria, if the opposition decides to take up arms against them.

          Other bigoted, xenophobic Americans are saying that these protests are only a radical Islamic ploy to overthrow the Jordanian government and start an extremist jihadi government in its place. That statement is delegitimizing the rightful and logical complaints that the Jordanian people have with their government. It’s saying that if you are a Jordanian and you oppose the government, you are not standing for freedom or democracy. You are not demanding your basic human rights. Your claims are not legitimate. Instead, you are a radical Islamic terrorist who just wants to kill Americans.

          These Americans do not believe that Muslims are human enough to deserve human rights; therefore, they do not deserve to choose their own leader and government, so they’re perfectly fine with giving millions of dollars to Abdullah so he can rule Jordan with an iron fist. Then they act all surprised when Jordanians show hostility to them: “What? Why do you hate us so much? All we did was finance a dictator that has been oppressing and torturing you guys for decades, so what? No big deal, stop protesting for democracy and freedom, and start doing everything we say!”

          We, as principled Americans, should not just stand by and let this happen. We must support our Jordanian brothers and sisters who just want the same basic human rights that we enjoy every day. We must help make their voices heard, as they have many powerful governments and medias working against them. We must counter the bigoted statements that our fellow countrymen say about them. We must demand an end to U.S. military aid to Jordan, because that “aid” is being used in actions that are in direct violations of our principles, morals and beliefs.

          The Jordanian government is not our “ally.” They do not care about us. All they care about is getting as much as our money as they can so they can further cement their despotic rule over their own people. They are opposed to democracy and freedom, which makes them our enemies. We have no right to tell the Jordanian people what they can or cannot do. All we can do is support them in their endeavors that agree with our principles, morals and beliefs. And what they’re working towards is the exact same thing that our founding fathers worked towards: democracy, freedom, liberty and justice for all.