Juan Cole on Hypocrisy

I ran across this on Andrew Sullivan's website. He points to Juan Cole, an academic who specializes in the Middle East and has a blog that comments on that region. Cole points out that when the US makes comments about thugs arresting people of spontaneous demonstrations, that is like the pot calling the kettle black:

Juan Cole makes a sharp point. The mass protests in Iran would not be allowed in the US either. And they weren't allowed in the US under Bush-Cheney:

The number of demonstrators arrested in Tehran on Saturday is estimated at 550 or so, which is less than those arrested by the NYPD for protesting Bush policies in 2004.

When the US government detains people with trial or due process and tortures them and forbids spontaneous public demonstrations in major cities, it has a problem getting on its high horse. Now, of course, Bush-Cheney was not Khamenei-Ahmadinejad. They didn't rig 2008 to get Palin installed. But once you have crossed certain red lines of civil liberties, your scope for criticizing others is somewhat limited.

I remember how police authorities in the US treated civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s. They unleashed police dogs, did baton charges, used water hoses. When I was in college a local black civil rights activist was arrested and died in police custody. They said he "fell down some stairs". It was a police murder. Even here today in Vancouver there are small acts of police brutality that go unnoticed. The odd murder by police of a drunk native or petty criminals taken to Stanley Park and viciously beaten by police. Cruelty by those in power is not new.

The horrors in Iran are not new. They are what any people struggling against intransigent and powerful authorities are up against. People in power are cruel. They know which side their bread is buttered on. They know that if the status quo is overthrown then they lose their privileges and soft life. A little blood on your hands to keep your high flying lifestyle seems like a cheap price.

One of the most memorable books I read was in grade 7 in 1961. It was the story of the Hungarian "freedom fighters". I was horrified to read how the West urged them on to "fight for their freedom" and when they did rise up and fought bare handed against troops and tanks, the West stood back and did nothing. These people sent out radio appeals to the West for help as they fought desperately to hold back Soviet tanks. They were crushed.

I remember 1968 when the Prague Spring saw people rise up with hope that they could have a "socialism with a human face" only to have it crushed by Soviet tanks. This time people weren't hopeful that the West would intervene. Just like they didn't intervene in the East German uprising of 1953 or the Solidarity movement in Poland in 1980.

Sadly, freedom is won by wasting much blood. As Thomas Jefferson said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

Here is my favourite bit from the Juan Cole piece:

American politicians should keep their hands off Iran and let the Iranians work this out. If the reformers have enough widespread public support, they will develop tactics that will change the situation. If they do not, then they will have to regroup and work toward future change. US covert operations and military interventions have caused enough bloodshed and chaos. If the US had left Mosaddegh alone in 1953, Iran might now be a flourishing democracy and no Green Movement would have been necessary.