[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’ COMMENTARY | Rape or killing: which is worse?’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY SESTILIO TESTA
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
Friday, June 16, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
CHELSEA Clinton – daughter of former US President Bill Clinton and the Democratic contender for the White House Hillary Clinton – and President Rodrigo Duterte were arguing in the media about the remarks made by the Philippine president about taking rape as a joke or not. I would tend to side with Clinton that rape is not a joking matter. But I will not discuss that here.
Chelsea also called Duterte a “murderous thug” for killing thousands in the effort to wipe out the use of illegal drugs in the Philippines. I would agree even with this because drugs are not a problem to be solved by summarily killing dealers and users. Duterte is not thinking clearly on this. No, my objection to Chelsea is that as an American she has little standing on moral grounds for criticizing any individual or country about violence.
America is the biggest killer in the world, starting with the treatment of Indians in the 19th century and the treatment of Blacks. It assumed imperial behavior starting with the Filipino-American War. American writer Mark Twain first used the term “imperialist” as applied to the United States.
In all these major events large killing campaigns were undertaken by Americans. In the Filipino war, the US killed one million Filipinos.
Common Americans are very ignorant about their own history, and Chelsea sounds like she is no different, Stanford education and all.
Throughout the 20th century the US installed and/or supported all kinds of dictators. The great (mind you!) American president Franklin D. Roosevelt said of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, “He’s a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”
Except for World War II, all American wars have been festivals of killings and destruction. In the Vietnam War two to four million Vietnamese were killed. Lately, Arab countries that opposed America were destroyed. Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria have been or are being wiped out, with the accompanying destruction of civilian lives.
Aside from the Vietnamese killings that can be classified as extreme, one more recent, in Iraq, is also extreme, vicious and cruel. After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991, the United Nations joined the US in imposing sanctions on Iraq. Even medical supplies were prohibited inside the country. Iraqis started dying, especially children. The killing reached alarming rates so that the whole world and humanitarian organizations begged the US to lift the sanctions. The sanctions were killing four to five thousand children a month. By then, only the US favored keeping them (Israel, too). President Bill Clinton’s (Chelsea’s father) Secretary of State Madeline Albright was asked if that was worth it. She replied, “Yes, it is worth it.” The champion in lifting the sanctions in the US was Ramsey Clark, former President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of State. The killing totaled over 500 thousand children, mostly five years old and younger, for the 11 years the sanctions lasted until the Iraq War started and that killed another 100 thousand in the invasion alone.
It is very convenient for American readers to ignore the crimes of their government, hidden from them by the American media. But the fact makes them no less responsible for the acts of their government elected by them. Where is Chelsea in all this?
Note, finally, that the myriad of dictators supported/installed by the US created lots of poverty that in turn kills millions. That’s the America of Chelsea who, as most of America’s young, is just another ignorant, bragging brat./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
