Damage Control: US human rights abuses

[nosmokes]

original

Damage Control:

The world takes note when the United States abuses human rights — and we the people must hold our leaders accountable
By Stephen Barnes
For The Register-Guard
Published: Sunday, November 13, 2005


"We love your people, it's just your government we don't like." I've heard this refrain several times daily since my arrival in Harbin, China, eight months ago - not only from Chinese people, but also from English, Irish, German, French, Russian and other foreign visitors. I know what they are trying to convey, and the easy response is simply to acknowledge the thought and agree.
However, as a visiting law professor in northeast China, I have to give a more complete response. I explain that unlike an authoritarian state where citizens do not choose their government, in America we do have a choice. Our government is the people, and it represents a majority of the people - at least, a majority of those who voted in the most recent election. Further, I explain, if our elected representatives are not responsive or accountable, "we the people" can change policy or course.
Although my response is, I believe, mostly accurate, it creates even more confusion.
"So, then, if the majority of Americans disapprove of what's happening in Iraq, why are you still there?"
"If the majority of Americans believe in human rights, why do you still keep prisoners in Cuba without giving them their rights - the due process rights which you have always insisted that other countries respect?"
And now this: "If the majority of Americans believe in human rights, then why do you let your government set up prisons in Eastern Europe to hide from inspectors?"
~snip~
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Stephen Barnes is a Eugene lawyer who is currently working as a visiting professor of law at the Harbin Institute of Technology School of Law in Harbin, China.

complete articlehere.

[justgamma]

1. Exactly!

"Human lives and the credibility of the United States are on the line"
We no longer have the moral compass to guide other nations to do the right thing. How can we stop "preemptive wars, if we fight them. How can we condemn torture, if we do it? How can we demand that minority voices be heard, while doing everything to silence them at home? How can we bemoan poverty in other countries, while doing nothing about it at home.
The RW have been on all the talk shows saying "we don't torture people". The trouble is we have pictures and evidence. The world knows it. Where is the credibility?