Americans like to think our country is the first and greatest Democracy and that we are Democracy's number one fan and booster.
The reality is a bit different. Often if our ideology or interests conflict with Democracy we will throw Democracy under the bus.
Iran conducted free and open democratic elections in 1951 and elected Dr. Mohammad Mosedegh as prime minister, while in office he introduced many progressive social reforms, and it was believed that Iran could act as an example for other countries in the area to spread democracy. But then he made the mistake of nationalizing what would become BP (British Petroleum) thinking that the people of Iran should benefit from the nation's oil resources more than England's tycoons.
At Britain's request, Kermit Roosevelt (Teddy's grandson) directed America's CIA Project Ajax, which overthrew the prime Minister and installed the Shaw.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_A...This intrusion angered the entire Middle-East and resulted in the overthrow of the Shaw, the rise of the ayatollahs and much of the terrorism in the world today.
But at the time America was very impressed that we could overthrow an entire nation with just a few spies and a bundle of money.
Flush with this victory we embarked on the effort to thwart Democracy in IndoChina.
France had just lost their colonies after an extended popular revolution. As part of the peace accords Indochina would be divided up into Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, which was temporarily divided, would be reunited after democratic elections. According to the Pentagon Papers, our CIA found out that 80% of the people of Vietnam would vote for their popular revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh, so we prevented the elections and reunification and installed a puppet in the South. After 20 years of war, the destruction of the region and between 1.5 and 3 million deaths, we realized that the will of the people is difficult to thwart and we gave the country back to the people who live there.
http://www.vietnam-about.com/forums/show...%29
We also overthrew and intervened in many Latin American countries, so Chiquita and other corporations could exploit those countries. (Thus the term Banana Republic)
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz...In almost all of America's interventions, the corporate conservative culture is what drove the actions. We overthrew governments to wrest the power away from a government that was trying to help their people, and replaced it with a puppet government willing to make deals that sold that nation's resources to major corporations. These puppet governments result in massive corruption where the few get fabulously wealthy while the majority of the people suffer. To maintain this state of inequality the dictator usually resorts to a heavy handed military or police state that cruelly suppresses all dissent, and eliminates most freedom from the people.
This forms a pressure cooker of resentment and occasionally when the anger increases sufficiently they can overthrow their government.
The United States does this because that is the way the free market works. For major corporations, bribing lawmakers and lobbying for the overthrow of governments, is simply another investment. Once a puppet dictator is installed the government continues to support these autocratic regimes and conveniently turns a blind eye to the atrocities and human rights abuses committed because it is in the best interests of the corporations that are doing business with them. The public is told that we support these countries because they are loyal opponents to Communism, or radical Islam, or in the case of Iraq, just because Saddam was a bad guy. These are all just fig leaves to cover up the real reasons we tolerate tyrants, but there is generally an ulterior motive.
There has been a sustained movement by the people who want better living conditions. It is becoming increasingly difficult for autocratic regimes to keep the cover on the pressure cooker while the poor continuously get poorer and the rich to get richer.
In Feb. 1986 the people overthrew Marcos in the Philipines. In Nov. 1989 the people brought down the wall in Berlin. In May 1998 the people threw out Suharto in Indonesia forming the most populous Muslim democracy.
In June 1989 The Polish Union's Solidarity Movement brought about their Freedom through peaceful protests. This is in marked contrast to the bloody Romanion revolution that eliminated Nicolae Ceausescu In Dec. 1989.
In April 1994 Peaceful protests brought about the end of Apartheid in Africa.
In 2003 there was the Rose revolution in Georgia. In 2004 there was the Orange Revolution in the Ukrain, in 2005 the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.
This year the people peacefully overthrew the rulers in Tunisia and Egypt. In Libya it is not so peaceful but Col Muammar Gaddafi's days are clearly numbered. Who will be next? Will it be Jordan, Yemin, Sudan? Are the days of the dictators numbered?
http://arashhejazi.com/en/2011/01/iran-t...While there has been a relentless demands for better living conditions, and wages for the people and less power to the corporations that prey on them, the inequality between the poor and the super rich continues to grow. The people of the world are learning how to organize. They are realizing that they have rights, dignity and power.
Meanwhile here in America we are going in the other direction. The corporate Conservative culture is working to make the rich richer with million dollar tax breaks. Half of the corporations pay no taxes at all and corporations like Exxon while making greater profits than any corporation has ever made in the history of the world, the Corporate Conservatives are fighting to allow them huge billion dollar subsidies. While the military spends more money than the rest of the world combined, the military Industrial Complex's paid stooges in Congress refuse to cut even the most blatant waste in the military while taking the food from the mouths of babies (WIC) .
The same Corporate conservative culture that is now under attack for exploiting people all over the world and denying them freedom, are in this country attacking the poor, the middle class, the women and the minorities, and they are taking away the people's right to organize. Their propaganda machines have convinced people that the main problem is our hard working teachers and civil servants, and have diverted their attention from the real villains who make thousands of times as much money as our union workers. It is the Bankers, the Hedge fund managers, the derivative traders and the international corporations who moved our jobs to China who actually caused the global economic collapse, and who are poised to do so again.
The corporate conservative culture hates Democracy. They have successfully crippled democracy here with the Citizen's United case which allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to steal elections without having to disclose how much they are spending. Now they are poised to kill Democracy by eliminating our right to organize.
Will Americans be the next to fight for their freedom and rights? They are peacefully fighting for their rights now in Wisconsin and in Indiana, and it may spread all over the country.
http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters...