Female Activist in Saudi Arabia Faces Death Penalty
A nation led by violent extremists is moving to behead a woman for taking part in peaceful demonstrations for human rights. It’s not Iran, not North Korea, not Syria, not Russia. It’s Saudi Arabia, the firm and friendly ally of the US & UK. The same nation we are supplying with bombs, planes, targeting and intelligence to kill thousands upon thousands of innocent people in Yemen. Now our good friends are going to cut off a woman’s head for talking about freedom.
Where is the right-wing outrage machine over these Islamic extremists committing an atrocity? (Oh, that’s right; for years, Fox News was partly owned by a Saudi prince.) Where are our angry centrists, so quick to rightly condemn human rights abuses in other countries? They’re too busy feasting with and celebrating the ruthless Saudi crown prince who wants to cut off this woman’s head, too busy praising him in the New York Times for his “reforms.” (He’s going to actually let women drive cars! Wow! Of course, if they talk about more freedoms, he’ll cut off their heads, but still, what a guy!)
How many time do we have to be shown this: our governments and media mandarins and political operatives DO NOT CARE about genuine human rights, genuine human freedom. Their outrage and condemnation is always — ALWAYS — selective. As long as a nation is considered useful or necessary to the aggrandizement of our elites, then it will not be denounced or rejected or shunned or sanctioned, no matter how many atrocities it commits against its own people and others.
If Iran decided to give its oil to Exxon and open Wal-Marts and support US military interventions here and there and everywhere (while buying billions from US war profiteers, like the Saudis do), then Teheran would be our friend, and any repression or abuses it perpetrated would be ignored. Any nation that gets with the program will be rewarded, protected or left alone; any nation that doesn’t is automatically an enemy or “adversary” to be attacked and condemned. All that matters is how they suit our agenda; what they actually DO — good, bad, indifferent — does not matter in the slightest. It’s best to keep this in mind when sorting through the maddening 24/7 cacophony of news and “analysis” that assails us from all sides. This grim fact will help you thread the howling labyrinth and make more sense of the chaos and confusion.