Rice Tells Lies

Rice said, "This war came to us, not the other way around."

That statement is a flat-out lie. She is speaking of Iraq, and Iraq did not attack the USA, Iraq did not threaten the USA, and as Ms. Rice herself claimed back in early 2001, Iraq was not a threat to the USA or even it’s neighboring countries. It amazes me that she can stand there and tell lies like this and get away with it.

She goes on and relates Iraq to the events of 9/11, even though Iraq, and Iraqis, had nothing to do with the events of 9/11:

Referring to the attacks of September 11, 2001, Rice said, "The absence of freedom in the Middle East -- the freedom deficit -- is what produced the ideology of hatred that allowed them to fly airplanes into a building on a fine September day."

This is also incorrect, however, I cannot call it a lie. She may be just really stupid. (Her stupidity is selective, however, as was the case about the claims of the threats of Saddam’s regime. In early 2001, she claimed Saddam was not a threat, in late 2003, she is talking of “mushroom clouds” from Saddam’s regime – a regime that didn’t even have an air force!) But, in the statement above, where she is totally incorrect is in claiming the “freedom deficit” produced the ideology of hatred. There are plenty of countries that do not have “freedom” in the style of the US, Canada, and most of Europe – yet they do not hate us. Furthermore, if there is a “freedom deficit” that produces hate – we should ask: how come they hate the USA, and not Canada or Sweden? Or poor health care system, maybe? That would make them hate us?

No, they hate us for our brutal, immoral and illegal foreign policy. (Hey, somebody tell the NY Times and WaPo and CNN that there is such a thing as INTERNATIONAL LAW and even MORALITY. They missed the memo.)

And, this is being brilliantly demonstrated for us today in what is going on in Uzbekistan! We have a dictator there who is being supported by the US administration, in spite of well-documented human rights abuses. We have a people there who have demonstrated against this dictator and his murder of his own people, and he then goes to murder even more of his own unarmed people. And this dictator claims the unarmed people are “terrorists” and the people they broke out of jail are “terrorists” (no evidence, beyond a torture-induced confession, to support that claim). The US administration does nothing. We have a military base there, and the US administration claims it is important in our fight against terrorism. It also has oil, gas and gold. (Funny how countries without such resources are not important in our ‘fight on terror’.) Does Bush stand up and condemn the violence against unarmed demonstrators in Uzbekistan, considering how he supported demonstrators in Lebanon and other places? NO, HE DOES NOT. Does Bush condemn the evil, brutal dictator of Uzbekistan – like he did Saddam? NO, HE DOES NOT.

Well, Bush is a hypocrite.

And Rice is a liar.

And we have pictures of Rumsfeld shaking hands with evil Saddam, and Bush shaking hands with the evil dictator of Uzbekistan. Like attracts like, I guess.

You can read more about Uzbekistan by going here:
Christian Science Monitor article on Uzbekistan