8 Terrible US Allies
Here’s Human Rights Watch with 8 unsavory US allies Obama should “dump”:
Afghanistan: As the Pentagon bows out, it is counting on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to see through the planned 2014 transition. But the Obama administration hasn’t used its considerable leverage to dissuade Karzai from undermining women’s rights, appointing an alleged torturer as intelligence chief, tolerating rampant corruption, and blocking efforts to hold accountable his warlord allies.
Uzbekistan: During the 2005 uprising in the town of Andijan, President Islam Karimov ordered troops to surround the demonstrators and shoot everyone in sight. Hundreds were slaughtered. His government routinely tortures dissidents and imprisons them for 15 or 20 years. Some have even been boiled alive. Yet the Obama administration soft-pedals his brutality — and waived restrictions on selling him military equipment — because Uzbekistan provides an alternative to Pakistan for resupplying the troops in Afghanistan. Especially as this rationale disappears, the Faustian bargain should end.
Cambodia: In 28 years as prime minister, Hun Sen has presided over the killing of countless political opponents while increasing his control of the army, police, and courts. But the Obama administration has done little to discourage him from building a one-party state, such as insisting that exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy be allowed home without fear of arrest, and has placed no conditions on increased military ties or aid. Cambodia is where Obama should demonstrate that his Asian “pivot” isn’t a competition with China for the loyalty of autocrats but a vision for Asian democracy.
Rwanda: Led by President Paul Kagame, the Rwandan government has long benefited from Washington’s genocide guilt (Bill Clinton’s administration sat on its hands during the 1994 massacre of more than half a million people) and admiration for its progress rebuilding the country. But the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which became the national army, itself murdered tens of thousands of civilians in the 1990s; the government uses detention and violence to shut down political opposition; and the military, despite persistent government denials, has actively supported a succession of rebel groups in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the U.S. Congress’s insistence, the Obama administration has finally suspended some military aid to Rwanda, but it continues to run political interference for the government and downplay its crimes, most recently its military support for the murderous M23 rebellion in eastern Congo.
Ethiopia: Washington had a blind spot for growing repression under the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who died in August. In return for Ethiopia’s help fighting terrorism and battling al-Shabab militants in Somalia, the Obama administration muffled its criticism of the security forces’ war crimes and the government’s restrictions on civil society, detention of journalists, violence against demonstrators, and pursuit of development policies that penalize political opponents.
Saudi Arabia: Yes, it has lots of oil. But the Saudis, who need cash to fuel their welfare state, are going to sell it regardless of how Obama treats them. Meanwhile, the Saudi monarchy holds thousands in arbitrary detention, imposes archaic restrictions on women, suppresses most dissent, mistreats its Shiite minority, and insists that the neighboring Bahraini monarchy crush its pro-democracy movement. Obama has been silent.
Bahrain: Saudi Arabia’s next-door neighbor is the most glaring exception to Obama’s generally supportive posture toward Arab Spring demonstrators. The ruling Al Khalifa family uses lethal force, torture, and arbitrary detention to crush protests. Yet out of deference to Saudi sensibilities and fear of losing the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet base, the Obama administration has allowed its security relationship with Bahrain to trump its concern for the rights of Bahrainis — a selectivity that undermines its broader support for Arab freedom.
Mexico: The country’s drug cartels have committed horrific crimes, but so have the security forces that former President Felipe Calderón sent to combat them. Obama routinely praised Calderón’s “great courage” in fighting the cartels with nary a word about widespread military and police abuses. Instead, the administration has sent some $2 billion to support Mexico’s counternarcotics efforts, despite ample evidence of human rights violations and security forces so corrupt that the Mexican government has turned to its navy to crack down on the cartels.
The list can obviously be much, much longer. But these will do for a start.
baz
January 8th, 2013 at 12:16 pm
did they forget to mention the racist apartheid state of Israel which is ethnically cleansing the palestinian people and stealing their land and resources so they can create a jew only society
Debbie Menon
January 8th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
You kidding baz ? Right on the heels of Sen. Rand Paul’s calls for reduction in foreign aid to Israel, his son gets busted for underage drinking…such is the retribution for any American pointing a finger at the so-called ally, Israel.
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/01/08/220136-…
Go figure!
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/01/08/220151-…
Debbie
Loose Savage
January 8th, 2013 at 5:46 pm
"Bill Clinton’s administration sat on its hands"
That was the best Presidential decision regarding the deployment of troops since Reagan's withdrawal from Lebanon. The MSM-propagated story of Rwanda is simplistic and incomplete.
jasonditz
January 8th, 2013 at 5:55 pm
There's lots of regimes worth getting honorable mention on this list. Krygyzstan, Yemen, Iraq, Central African Republic. Then again the US isn't exactly human rights friendly itself anymore, so maybe these aren't so much "terrible allies" as a reflection of the unsavory sort of regimes we attract these days.
ricardus
January 8th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Clinton didn't sit on his hands in Rwanda as Paul Kagame, who was trained by the US, whose military was so trained, went ahead and intervened as planned… and Kagame himself requested no other assistance.
Vik
January 9th, 2013 at 4:32 am
Where is Pakistan?
richard vajs
January 9th, 2013 at 5:41 am
Israel doesn't belong on any list of "terrible allies" – they are in a category all of their own – a category best described as "unbelievably nasty and untouchable by decent countries"
liberranter
January 9th, 2013 at 10:33 am
Then again the US isn't exactly human rights friendly itself anymore
"Anymore?" Was it ever "human rights friendly" to begin with?
liberranter
January 9th, 2013 at 10:34 am
Yup. "Terrible 'Ally'" doesn't fit here. Terrible MASTER is more appropriate.
liberranter
January 9th, 2013 at 10:37 am
Or the Philippines, Egypt, Qatar, South Korea, Colombia, et cetera.
goldhoarder
January 10th, 2013 at 4:07 am
Without Israel the list is a joke
Teresa Callery
January 11th, 2013 at 2:56 pm
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Britteny Cartin
January 12th, 2013 at 5:44 am
alexdombroff@alexanderdombroff.com
SS Ulrich
February 6th, 2013 at 2:32 pm
John did not mention Israel because there is a differene between being an ally and being the boss. US is under occupation and occupiers are never "allies".
John
February 6th, 2013 at 5:07 pm
Israel has taken control of the greatest military machine the world has ever known, the United States. They control our President, our Senate, and our Congress, and they did this with money. The American people no longer run the government; the forces that pay the puppet run the country. http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/02/05/221044-…
Rhys
February 6th, 2013 at 7:46 pm
Forget them all.
Israel makes them all pale into insignificance. But as Israel controls the US, I do not suppose that they are really an ally, are they?
One could excuse Cambodia from not falling into the influencial ambit of the good old USA. Short memories those people in Washington. The thing the US did to wipe themslves off the Cambodia birthday greetings list was to be responsible for 600,000 deaths. Collateral damage, yet again?.
So don't worry about Cambodia. They don't worry about you based on history alone. China will look after them very well, thanks.
sohbet
April 25th, 2013 at 9:49 pm
hat communities divert law enforcement resources from violent crimes to illegal drug offenses, the risk of punishment for engaging i
sohbet
April 25th, 2013 at 9:49 pm
dssdaw enforcement resources from violent crimes to illegal drug offenses, the risk of punishment for engaging i
sohbet
April 25th, 2013 at 10:49 pm
asdsaat an influence mill with that on your résumé. You do if Ambassador to Saudi Arabia means what doing the "important work" needed under current policies. "We have to
sohbet odalari
April 25th, 2013 at 10:49 pm
e money in running a government section whose most important job is taking your call when you get drunk in Riyadh. You don't get a great job at an influence mill with that on your résumé. You do if Ambassador to Saudi Arabia means what doing the "important work" needed under current policies. "We have to
cinsel chat
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whose most important job is taking your call when you get drunk in Riyadh. You don't get a great job at an influence mill with that on your résumé. You do if Ambassador to Saudi Arabia means what doing the "important work
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