Human Rights Watch report slates American oppression

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In recent weeks the United States has been condemned by Human rights organisations for its "abuses" in Afghanistan. Since 2002 over one thousand people have been detained at military bases like Bagram in Afghanistan. Once imprisoned people are routinely subjected to sleep deprivation, extremes of hot and cold temperatures and beatings. Two people have died and both the cases were judged to be homicide.

The detentions have been accompanied by the use of overwhelming force like indiscriminate fire from helicopter gunships, which has led to many injuries and deaths amongst the civilian population. A new comprehensive and damning Human Rights Watch report, entitled Enduring Freedom, states that abuses by US Forces are "almost entirely outside the rule of law". The Pentagon has never accounted for these actions and the reports author fears that "appropriate criminal and disciplinary action may never take place".


Today’s treatment of the Muslim world is not far from how the western world has treated Muslims historically. The British colonized and butchered the Muslims in India, whilst one of the ‘great’ leaders, Winston Churchill, used chemical weapons against the Kurds for not paying extortionate taxes. There are also too many well documented atrocities by the US in their decimation of Vietnam, or indeed the usage of nuclear weapons against Japan. Today, these western nations continue to sponsor vicious, ruthless and tyrannical rulers in the Muslim world, like Karimov of Uzbekistan, or Mubarak of Egypt. Such a history and plethora of examples should be sufficient to prove that the West has a hypocritical policy when it deals with other nations, especially Muslims.

The truth of the matter is that western countries care little for the welfare of human life and pay lip service to the misery that they afflict on others. This is not surprising, since the Capitalist nations put the pursuance of wealth and resources as their highest ideal. The US has not sent men and machinery to Afghanistan because it is concerned for the people of Afghanistan; rather it has sent its forces there so that it may advance its foreign policy goals which are driven by economic and strategic concerns surrounding oil. Such goals are built upon raw greed, and are very characteristic of the western nations.

http://www.1924.org/comment/index.php?id=1144_0_13_0_M