by
Paul Craig Roberts
PaulCraigRoberts.org

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Syria has a
secular government as did Iraq prior to the american invasion. Secular
governments are important in Arab lands in which there is division
between Sunni and ShiÂ’ite. Secular governments keep the divided
population from murdering one another.

When the american
invasion, a war crime under the Nuremberg standard set by the US
after WWII, overthrew the Saddam Hussein secular government, the
Iraqi Sunnis and ShiÂ’ites went to war against one another.
The civil war between Iraqis saved the american invasion. Nevertheless,
enough Sunnis found time to fight the american occupiers of Iraq
that the US was never able to occupy Bagdad, much less Iraq, no
matter how violent and indiscriminate the US was in the application
of force.

The consequence
of the US invasion was not democracy and womenÂ’s rights in
Iraq, much less the destruction of weapons of mass destruction which
did not exist as the weapons inspectors had made perfectly clear
beforehand. The consequence was to transfer political power from
Sunnis to ShiÂ’ites. The ShiÂ’ite version of Islam is the
Iranian version. Thus, WashingtonÂ’s invasion transferred power
in Iraq from a secular government to ShiÂ’ites allied with Iran.

Now Washington
intends to repeat its folly in Syria. According to the american
secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, Washington is even prepared
to ally with al-Qaeda in order to overthrow AssadÂ’s government.
Now that Washington itself has al-Qaeda connections, will the government
in Washington be arrested under the anti-terrorism laws?

WashingtonÂ’s
hostility toward Assad is hypocritical. On February 26, the Syrian
government held a referendum on a new constitution for Syria that
set term limits on future presidents and removed the political monopoly
that the BaÂ’ath Party has enjoyed.

The Syrian
voter turnout was 57.4%, matching the voter turnout for Obama in
2008. It was a higher voter turnout (despite the armed, western-supported
rebellion in Syria) than in the nine US presidential elections from
1972 through 2004. The new Syrian constitution was approved by a
vote of 89.4%.

But Washington
denounced the democratic referendum and claims that the Syrian government
must be overthrown in order to bring democracy to Syria.

WashingtonÂ’s
allies in the region, unelected oil monarchies such as Saudi Arabia
and Qatar, have issued statements that they are willing to supply
weapons to the Islamist rebels in order to bring democracy – something
they do not tolerate at home – to Syria.

For Washington
“democracy” is a weapon of mass destruction. When Washington
brings “democracy” to a country, it means the country’s
destruction, as in Libya and Iraq. It doesnÂ’t mean democracy.
Libya is in chaos, a human rights nightmare without an effective
government.

Washington
installed Nouri al-Maliki as president of Iraq. He lost an election,
but remained in power. He has declared his vice president to be
a terrorist and ordered his arrest and is using the state police
to arrest Sunni politicians. SyriaÂ’s Assad is more democratic
than IraqÂ’s Maliki.

For a decade
Washington has misrepresented its wars of naked aggression as “bringing
democracy and human rights to the Middle East.” While Washington
was bringing democracy to the Middle East, Washington was destroying
democracy in the US. Washington has resurrected medieval torture
dungeons and self-incrimination. Washington has destroyed due process
and habeas corpus. At ObamaÂ’s request, Congress passed overwhelmingly
a law that permits american subjects to be imprisoned indefinitely
without a trial or presentation of evidence. Warrantless searches
and spying, illegal and unconstitutional at the turn of the 21st
century, are now routine.

Obama
has even asserted the right, for which there is no law on the books,
to murder any american anywhere if the executive branch decides,
without presenting any evidence, that the person is a threat to
the US government. Any american anywhere can be murdered on the
basis of subjective opinion in the executive branch, which increasingly
is the only branch of the US government. The other two “co-equal”
branches have shriveled away under the “war on terror.”

Why is Washington
so determined to bring democracy to the Middle East (with the exception
of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Emirates), Africa, Iran,
Afghanistan, Russia, and China, but is hostile to constitutional
rights in america?

The rights
that americans gained from successful revolution against King George
III in the 18th century have all been taken away by Bush/Obama in
the 21st century. One might think that this would be a news story,
but it isnÂ’t.

DonÂ’t
expect the Ministry of Truth to say anything about it.

March
3, 2012

Paul
Craig Roberts [send
him mail], a
former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate
editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases
of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book,

The
Tyranny of Good Intentions,
co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how
americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random
House. Visit his website.

Copyright
© 2012 Paul
Craig Roberts

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