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Our Dictators Always Seem To Run Amok
by James Glaser November 8, 2007 Before we had Saddam in our pocket, we had the Shah of Iran in there. The Shah got too heavy with his use of his secret police who we trained in the art of torture. What happened? The Iranian people revolted and took their country back. Saddam Hussein, was our "boy" too. He too had his secret police, but we couldn't get an Iraqi revolt started after we decided Saddam wasn't playing ball with us any more. Yes, it is true that the first President Bush got a revolt going in Iraq, but that first George didn't have the guts to back the Kurds, and he let Saddam slaughter thousands. It took his son, and thousands of American and Iraqi lives to end Saddam's rule. Now we have the second George Bush dealing with almost the same thing. This time the dictator is General Pervez Musharref, of Pakistan. Musharref took over his country in 1999 by disbanding parliament, throwing out the elected leaders of the country, and tearing up the country's constitution. General Musharref has been our dictator of late. Our current George Bush has given the General thousands of millions of American tax dollars, in the hope that he would fight terrorism. Well, he hasn't, and like those other two American-controlled dictators, Pervez has been using his secret police a bit too much, and he also decided to get rid of Pakistan's supreme court. You would be right on the money if you said General Musharref has been running amok. That is what usually happens when America backs a dictator, they all seem to run amok, and Musharref's actions should be no surprise. Backing dictators gets us in trouble. Not many in Iraq appreciate what America has done to their country, nor do they appreciate all the years we gave them Saddam Hussein. The people in Iran feel the same way, and in one of their museums they have the CIA torture instruction manuals they found when they took over our Embassy. Those are the manuals with which we trained the Shah's secret police. Who knows what the people of Pakistan will find when they finally overthrow their American-backed dictator. You can be sure that the people of Pakistan will remember that we told the world that America stands for freedom and democracy all the time we were paying off their dictator with American money. |
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