community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
We Cannot Control It All
by Sudhama Ranganathan
Thursday, Apr. 21, 2011 at 12:57 PM
uconnharassment@gmail.com (email address validated)
The struggles for democracy in Africa and the Middle East have displayed to us just how wrong so many of us have been on so many fronts regarding that region. We have gone around the world saying we have been a constant light for liberty and freedom and would always side with people that wanted it. That was not always true. The current revolutions brought to light many places where we supported dictators, and even marketed as somehow free, nations that have been awaiting human rights for a long time.
These were places so many influential leaders called bastions of hate and anger. These were places it was said only wanted extreme religious governments in direct opposition to everything we stand for as a nation. These were places it was said would turn against us in a heartbeat if the majority of people had their say. It was said they hated everything we stood for.
Yet when the time came for them to stand up and say we want change the narrative was somewhat different. When all the pompous gasbags’ posited day came where people were supposed to rise up and demand “caliphates” and annihilation of the infidels that whole idea passed by like a high speed train through a station being watched by wrongheaded people that just swore it was going to stop there. The calls were for democracy and who would have thunk it? Not only were they for democracy, but they were asking the west, us included, for help in achieving it.
When our cameras, reporters and journalists went into the streets the overwhelming sentiment was “we welcome you, we don’t hate you and we want democracy too.” They didn’t start surrounding our people pelting them with rocks and accusing us of infractions of the creeds of their religion or culture. It turns out with regards to the basics in life they were more like us than not.
There were and are extremists in the region and will be for quite some time. But there are extremists all over the place. We have violence prone extremists here on US soil not connected to Islam or any current ethnic groups in North Africa or the Middle East. No matter the narrative, when things happened the pundits talking points went out the window, and many of them ended up looking like the wacky extremists that didn’t know what they were talking about.
Much of that talk about the intentions of the majority of people in the region was used as an excuse for having such a mighty and vast military presence in the area and elsewhere in the world. The idea was if we weren’t there things would spiral out of control and the likes of Al Qaeda would take over.
In reality, most people seem to just want a better standard of living for their families and themselves just like us. They want their children to have decent educations. They want to be able to get jobs with living wages and participate in what would be considered a free economy. In America there were many dismissed as wimpy liberals or soft conservatives who said that was most likely what they wanted – just the same stuff we did.
Personally I’m neither a hawk nor a dove – just some guy in the middle, but they were right. Had our presence been meant to keep the peace by helping to back up democracies from the grip of tyrants that would be one thing. But we were actually there in many if not most cases backing up authoritarian rulers with records of brutal oppression and torture. They lived as rulers for decades amassing vast sums while their people remained impoverished and unable to live freely.
Now what? Now what do we do? The ordinary people of the region called our bluff. They did not intend to set up extremist governments for the most part. They just wanted to live better. They wanted to have the right to choose their destiny and their government. They wanted freedom.
We were not always there protecting liberty and freedom, for when the time came to step up in favor of it extreme hawks from the lead up to the Iraq War calling all those that raised questions traitors and unpatriotic would have been cheering and calling for us to support them. Instead they were trepidatious and warned of “destabilization.” They started talking about the price of oil rising and our “friends” in the region.
If in truth our involvement in the region simply amounted to providing security for American oil companies then those people have already exposed their own fraud and admitted to the lie. We simply don’t need to be there or in other regions at the levels we currently are. 700 – 800 foreign military bases or installations are simply not necessary. What are they all protecting, fighting for or defending against? People do want freedom and the right to choose their own destinies and the military brass has shown our presence not only has nothing to do with furthering that freedom but has at times been contradictory to our long trumpeted goals of spreading liberty and democracy across the globe.
Those big oil companies can protect themselves by hiring private security firms. When the US military is doing their security it is the ordinary taxpayer that foots the bill and there is simply no reason for us to be doing that at the levels we currently are. It’s time to close down the bases and fold the tents. Not everywhere but in most places. We aren’t going to act for freedom in most cases unless the need is dire. We had the chance and balked and that was in accordance with the reality of the situation.
We just don’t need to be all over the world. Let’s close the bases and bring home the troops. Not all of them but significant numbers. All we’re doing there is wasting money which we could use back home right now. We have tried to control what goes on around the world for so long and now that a little chaos has broken out it turns out to be a good thing.
To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.
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