Democracy Hypocrisy, Part 10

So, it is okay with the Republicans to go and bomb the snot out of Iraq, and to do the “shock(ing) and awe(ful)” and never bother to count the dead bodies. It is okay to flatten a city or two or sixteen (think Fallujah – 2/3rds destroyed!) and it is okay to imprison people without trial or arrest. It is okay to torture and abuse them while they are in prison. And it is okay to use chemical weapons and nuclear weapons (depleted uranium) and cluster bombs on civilian populations and okay to bomb TV stations, water treatment plants, electrical supply stations and even hospitals. It is okay to complete destroy people’s lives and country in the “name” of bringing them “freedom and democracy”. But this is not okay:

US Court Backs Fine for Iraq Humanitarian Visits

A Seattle man who traveled to Iraq nine times to deliver medicines during the 1990-2003 international embargo was properly fined more then $13,000, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday. Bertram Sacks visited Iraq and broke the embargo nine times to deliver humanitarian aid between 1996 and the start of the U.S.-led war there. He sued in federal court after he was assessed a $10,000 fine, a sum that later rose to $13,767.08 with interest and late fees. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals backed the travel ban regulations and the fine. "His challenge to the restriction on medical donations does not fulfill the constitutional requirements of standing and ripeness," Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the panel. "The penalty against Sacks is valid." The United States imposed sanctions in 1990 after Iraq's invasion of neighboring Kuwait, a move that banned Americans from direct or indirect commercial trade with Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule. The United Nations also imposed sanctions.

Got that? Killing Iraqis is OKAY. Helping them out by getting some humanitarian aid to them (in this case, medical supplies) is NOT OKAY. And this judgment comes from the very same people who SAY they are bringing FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY to the Iraqi people.

So, in installment #10 in my Democracy Hypocrisy series, this one takes the cake. The Republicans are claiming to help people by bombing them - while prosecuting people who actually are helping them a little bit.

Only a REPUBLICAN CONGRESS AND PRESIDENCY COULD ACHIEVE THIS LEVEL OF HYPOCRISY.