Moral Leadership, Disarmament and Latent Racism

Submitted by Akber Choudhry on

Pope Benedict said the following today:

In a clear reference to Iran, he said: "Concerning the international crises linked to nuclear power, may an honourable solution be found for all parties, through serious and honest negotiations."

In another part of the speech, the Pope defended Israel's right to exist, a passage which appeared to be an indirect criticism of statements by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian President, that the Jewish state should be eliminated.

But he also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

He said: "May the international community, which re-affirms Israel's just right to exist in peace, assist the Palestinian people to overcome the precarious conditions in which they live and to build their future, moving towards the constitution of a state that is truly their own."

Traditional Disarmament
The current approach to disarmament by the US is based on racism, a plague that the US has wrestled with since its inception.

During the era of SALT treaties with the Soviet Union, the negotiation was based on mutual respect. The Soviets were enemies, but they were responsible human beings and the goal was a strategic reduction in nuclear arms on both sides.

Similarly, the NPT treaty signed by many non-nuclear nations was based on respect and help with nuclear research. The use of nuclear weapons against smaller states was never an issue.

Single Superpower and the Racist Appeal
After the US becomes a single superpower, natural and inevitable hubris come in and the new policy becomes: “We can build nuclear arsenals and threaten to use them, no one else can or should.”

This logic-defying approach to disarming others at the point of a bayonet needs a premise for it to be rational: that the white man and the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Israel are rational and human, while others are sub-human, irresponsible and unreliable.

The history of the last two centuries belies this basic premise. So, it had to be propagated by the wink-wink nod-nod racism propagated by the highest officials of the US. Just as they propagated slavery and segregation. “Muslims love death. Ahmedinejad is irrational. blah blah. Saddam is evil. Osama is the incarnation of Satan. blah blah. wink wink. They can be killed, they are not equals. We shoot at them, we are liberators – they shoot at us – they are terrorists”

Disarming other nations will NOT work unless it is a mutual disarmament. Asking others not to build nuclear weapons while INCREASING our arsenal and threatening to use it is nothing but the insanity of a drunken bully. It cannot be sold. It cannot be accepted. And the media, citizens and the academics of the US are complicit.

American Racism Bites Back
Give me freedom or give me death! This was not only the slogan of a certain American pioneer but of all people around the world – especially in this information age when the world is but a village. This is the cry of the Palestinian and the cry of the Iraqi and the cry of every patriotic under occupation. People have given more sacrifices for freedom around the world than the Americans ever did in gaining their independence from the British.

This latent racism that is now growing unchecked is coming back to bite the UAS. I travel over the world and it sickens me to see people cheering any misfortune of the US, from Latin America to China to the Middle East to India to Africa.

It sickens me to see how a country founded on equality and the greatest principles of the Protestant Reformation is now being chided by the Catholic pope, and there is NO answer, just bombs.

Others Should Step Up

It will take two centuries, perhaps never, for the US to gain its moral leadership that it has so miserably lost in the last 10 years. Until that happens, internal US conditions will deteriorate, for the US economy was built on the backs of the people of the world, and the money of the world, coming to a land of freedom. It was not God's gift to a superior race – it was the labour of Chinese, European, African and Russian farmers, labourers and scientists, mixed with the capital and the savings of the world that led to this citadel of freedom and liberty being what it is.

Sadly, it is time for others to take the moral leadership now. A leader leads morally, never by force. Once the leader becomes the butt of ridicule, the game is over.

Comments

Your thoughts are the very

Your thoughts are the very ESSENCE of latent racism - and immorality veiled as "morality."

It saddens me to see racists such as yourself claiming how "progressive" you are, when you bend over backwards to defend regressive regimes such as Iran's that treat women, gays, and nonMuslims in a second class status. (hell, gays fear their lives in Iran!) Truly, truly sad.

Do you believe women, gays, and nonMuslims are inferior to yourself? Is that it?

But then again, when you apply a different - higher - standard to nonMuslims that you never would apply to Muslims/Arabs...it implies that somehow the Muslims/Arabs are not capable of reaching such a standard. Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations! Such behavior, if anything, is bigotted AGAINST Arabs/Muslims.

I do not give a free pass to anyone to treat women, gays, and religious minorities in a second class status. I expect more.

So who is the latent racist?

Akber, why do you hate Muslims? What is it about the Muslim people you feel are so inferior that they cannot stand up to the same standards you hold for Israelis/Jews?

--edited - removed irrelevant remarks

I do see your point, and

I do see your point, and there are many things Muslims can do for themselves and improve their lot. I have great admiration for the Jewish faith and for its great history and its great prophets, as well as many Jewish people, some of whom I know personally.

Now, to answer you:
Israel is not the same as Jews, and for reasons we both know very well.

The racism I am pointing out is this: China suppresses the Catholic church. Who spoke out? That is the point. The issue of disarmament cannot be discussed rationally without applying an equal standard.

What right does one nation have to outspend the rest of the world in stockpiling WMD's while asking others to not bolster their defenses, when they are in the crosshairs of attack.

How would you term this behaviour? Survival of the fittest, maybe? Well, it goes both ways! :)

But at the same time, the

But at the same time, the equal standard applied to nations also has to take into account facts that you are flat out ignoring.

1) Israel has never once said "I want to destroy Iran." Ahmedinajad has said, on the other hand, that he wants to destroy Israel.

2) Iran has made it clear they are no friend of the US/Israel. They sponsor suicide bomber training camps, and we cannot forget what happened with the Iran hostage takeover crisis in 1979.

3) The leaders in Iran were not democratically elected (Ahmedinajad did not have any real opponents, and in any case, the mullahs really run the place), and the local population is disaffected and wants change. The only thing that gets the local population to stand behind the unelected leaders is to talk tough about war/terror/bash Israel and the US.

Is it safe to have a world where a nation of that character has the atomic bomb? I think not. Though I will admit that #3 also applies to the US somewhat, that doesn't mean it is good for the world a nation to have the bomb which falls into all three categories. (and certainly Bush was more democratically elected than Ahmedinajad, however sad it is to even make a comparison)

And all this has nothing to do with racism.

So the bottom line is...friends are treated differently than enemies. It's not "Muslims can't get the bomb, nonMuslims can." It's "Iran has proven it cannot be trusted." I fail to see how that is latent racism.

On the other hand, when Amnesty International goes out of their way to lambast Israel and the US for everything they do - while being soft on nations that do far worse - THAT is latent racism. Do you deny that you fall into that category? Certainly the "Truth Will Set You Free" blog fits into this category.

One last thing. Israel is not the same as Jews, but it is the ONE Jewish state in the world, and it gets shat upon by world agencies everywhere. Sure, Israel does not equal Jews, but there remains a question as to WHY there is such a disparate treatment. I would argue that one of the reasons for such a disparate treatment (such as hundreds of UN resolutions against Israel, and barely a peep against Saudi Arabia, for example), is that Israel, as the ONE Jewish nation, IS an easy target.

I mean, just look at The Truth Will Set You Free! Many of the commentators quote directly from The Protocols of Zion. In the Middle East, this book is a bestseller! Are you actually going to tell me with a straight face that anti-Jewish sentiment has nothing to do with the hate against Israel??

None of that means that there isn't legitimate criticism of Israel. Israel, after all, did enact a war of aggression against Lebanon in 1982. Though - that was after rockets were fired into Israel by the nation. So it was not exactly unprovoked. But my point is that however bad Israel treats Palestinians, they have a better life IN ISRAEL, than they would in much of the Middle East. Furthermore, Hamas has made it clear that if they were to be in charge, they would make Islam the official religion, and kick out all the Jews in West Bank - even if they reside in a place such as Hebron, where Jews have lived for several millenia. (not to mention the fact that they still want all of Israel, not just the West Bank, and employ terror to get it)

Whatever Israel does and has done against the Palestinians has been done a thousand times over by Muslims against other Muslims. Yet hardly a mention! Black September in 1970 - Jordan killed more Palestinians than Israel has since the intifada began! Moreover, Palestinians do not exactly have a great system of justice within their territory, and even Palestinians have killed (at least) HUNDREDS of Palestinians! (Israel on the other hand, has abolished the death penalty)

Where is any of this in The Truth Will Set You Free?

Where is the fact that Jews are not allowed to openly practice their religion in Iran? Where is the fact that when they speak out - they fear death? Not to mention the fact that gay people are killed for being gay in Iran. Or, that if you go to a place such as gaymiddleeast.blogspot.com, you will read of the harsh treatment of gays in Lebanon, the most liberal nation in the region!

I know I am going off on tangents. But my point remains. Israel is not perfect. I cannot say I approve of the settlements in the territories. Though, the settlements are mostly in areas that Jews have historical ties to and yet were previously kicked out of. Furthermore, Jews have had their land grabbed a thousand times over in the Middle East, so on a comparative scale, I do not see it as the most horrible human rights disaster compared with what goes on DAILY in the rest of the Middle East.

Instead of focusing on how horrible the Palestinians have it, why not look at the fact that they were KICKED OUT of Jordan, and how THAT has contributed to the quagmire?

Focusing exclusively on Israel and the West's wrongs - while ignoring the far more egregious wrongs of Muslim nations - simply smacks of a double standard. And I call things like I see it. Latent racism.

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