See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

Shortly before Christmas, the British Defense Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, admitted that British-made cluster bombs had been used in the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. The statement came seven months after his ministry repeated Saudi Arabian claims that no such weapons had been used, denying the evidence provided by Amnesty International. The 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs called BL755 had been proven to have killed and injured civilians including children, yet the Right Honorable Gentleman could not resist to mention that they had been used against “legitimate military targets.” One could think that the revelation of such facts, followed by an unwieldy statement from one of the highest government officials would spark media outrage, or at least provoke a nationwide discussion which could then lead to some constructive conclusions, but Sir Fallon’s declaration attracted very little media attention. The same can be said about the war in Yemen which has taken lives of thousands of civilians, displaced over 2.5 million of its citizens and left over 2/3 of the whole population in need of humanitarian aid.  The scarce media coverage should no longer surprise anyone, as the main news outlets tend to bombard the public with topics of a greater significance, like Prime Minister’s footwear or the price of some other parts of her garment.

Shopping Spree for Kings

BL755 is designed to explode mid-air, releasing 147 bomblets with a reach of 97 thousand square feet (9 thousand square meters). It’s most effective against mobile targets like soft-skinned vehicles and it’s extremely harmful to humans. Cluster bombs’ wide area stretch that cannot rule out killing and injuring civilians, as well as the dangers it poses for years after the drop when unexploded were the main reasons why over 100 nations signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008 (forbidding the use, development or stockpiling of these weapons), the UK being one of them.

The abovementioned BL755s had been sold to the Saudis during the rule of Margaret Thatcher and were dropped from the British-manufactured Tornado jets which have been since upgraded. What’s most significant, the UK government drastically increased its military export licences to the Persian Gulf’s absolute monarchy when the conflict in Yemen began. Just in the first year of fighting, the sales were worth over $4 billion – that included the Eurofighter Typhoon jets, which have been bombing residential areas of Yemen. It’s worth mentioning that the Prime Minister herself has defended these weapon deals and has not condemned the coalition’s actions in Yemen.

Nevertheless, the UK’s $8 billion worth of arms deals with the KSA during the current government’s term may seem peanuts in comparison to $115bn (sic) of weapon sales to the Saudis offered by the USA since Barack Obama took power (though Americans halted some of the transfers last December, unlike the British). That’s one of the fields where the outgoing president managed to surpass his predecessors. Among scores of military equipment purchased by the Gulf Kingdom were the 2,000 lb (over 900 kg) Mark 84 bombs, also dropped on noncombatant targets.

The Righteous Double Standards

The United Nations expert panel has confirmed that the Saudi-led coalition has targeted civilian population, bombing schools, hospitals, buses, mosques and markets, therefore, it has continuously violated international humanitarian law. How is it possible then, that the USA and the United Kingdom have not proposed any major sanctions against Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and other nations taking part in the devastation of Yemen? Why are they doing exactly the opposite, providing aid to the aggressors?

We have been told for years that both the American and the British governments represent the highest values of humanity, cherish human life and freedom, revere democracy and despise tyranny. We have been told that they are “the good ones,” fighting injustice, helping the oppressed, saving the world from evil, so the people of all nations can live in peace and prosperity. That is the image we (the Westerners) get in our history books, films, newspapers and TV programs. Our general impression of the only superpower in the world, i.e., the United States is that of Captain America (the others – our Western governments, with the United Kingdom furthest ahead –duly adhere to their master). That would explain why we frantically follow what we are told by its officials, rarely finding courage to question their sincerity. But that perception is very dangerous as it leads to the conclusion that what we do is right because we do it, and laws apply to us only if we say so. Therefore, it’s wrong for them, our adversaries, to commit crimes and engage in unlawful acts, yet it’s perfectly fine for us to wreak havoc and bring about destruction upon others.

Our hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness have no limits. Our schizophrenia is inconceivable. There are multiple examples of West’s criminality in foreign nations, like mass slayings of their populations in Vietnam or Iraq, assassinations or assassination attempts of their leaders, like Patrice Lumumba of the Congo or Fidel Castro of Cuba, cases of providing safe haven for certified terrorists, like Luis Posada Carriles or Orlando Bosch, and numerous instances of meddling in other countries’ elections, very often installing bloodthirsty sociopaths as their rulers, like Pinochet in Chile or Suharto in Indonesia. But, for us, they were the good guys, “our sons of bitches.”

Then, who are those tyrants we fought righteous wars against? Who are the people we vigorously demonized, the ones we described as merciless thugs, and, in most notable cases, did not hesitate to ceremonially end their lives? Let’s take a look at some of their résumés.

Devil Incarnate

December 30 of 2016 marked a decade of the reality-show style execution of a long-time dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. We all know what kind of despot he was. Brutal towards the citizens of his own nation, merciless to his opponents, he was our epitome of evil. What was he hanged for? The main crime he was convicted for was the July 1982 Dujail Massacre, where 148 Shiite residents were killed in a retaliation for a failed assassination attempt on Hussein.

It would be quite useful to add that 5 months before the carnage the US removed Iraq from the list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism.” What was the story behind it? During that time, Iraq was deeply involved in a war with its neighbor, Iran, which, by 1982, started gaining advantage over Saddam’s army. It wasn’t something the World’s Policeman was looking forward to, therefore, after removing Iraq from the above list, the US could freely supply Hussein with military equipment and other kinds of aid.

Remember the story which Tony Blair and George W. Bush based their invasion of Iraq on? It was a fable that Saddam Hussein had active weapons of mass destruction, and that he would be able to use them within 45 minutes. They also scared the public with claims that he was developing nuclear arsenal he was ready to use against the Western countries. All of that was obviously a hoax based on fraudulent intelligence reports (some of those had even been inspired by Hollywood movie plots). What was carefully avoided by major news reports, though, was the fact that there were WMDs found in Iraq during the 2^nd Gulf War. However, they had nothing to do with the active arsenal as portrayed by the Western coalition’s propaganda, they were the remnants of Saddam’s weapon program from the 1980s. What’s most interesting, as the investigation by the New York Times concluded: “the munitions appeared to have been designed in the United States, manufactured in Europe and filled in chemical agent production lines built in Iraq by Western companies.”

The coalition bombings together with the outrageous mismanagement of the country in the most crucial time after the invasion by a corporate consultant, Paul Bremer, let the country with an incredibly rich history descent into chaos. The sectarian conflicts and any terrorist organizations originating or evolving in Iraq (including our main scare these days – the Islamic State) are a direct result of those actions. The US planned for deposing Saddam after deciding that he wasn’t good for business. If the abuse of human rights, lack of democracy or even ties to 9/11 attacks (the American officials unsuccessfully tried to link Hussein to al-Qaeda) had ever been an issue, the first country to invade would have been Saudi Arabia, which would have met all the above criteria.

“We Came, We Saw, He Died”

These were the words then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gleefully cried out during the interview in 2011, straight after the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi had been killed.

The MQ-1 Predator drone operated from Las Vegas, accompanied by the French Air Force Dassault Rafale bombers fired missiles at the convoy while the Libyan colonel was trying to flee the city of Sirte during the Libyan Civil War. Found in a drainage pipe and raped with a bayonet by the rebels, then, killed at the spot, reportedly, by a French intelligence agent, Gaddafi’s 42-year rule officially came to an end.

The Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, as he called himself since 1979, had a truly love-hate relationship with the West, most importantly the United States. Shortly after he had taken power in 1969, the US hindered several conspiracies to overthrow him, due to his initial anti-communist stance. Then, in the ‘70s and ‘80s, he was accused of supporting numerous separatist and terrorist organizations, plane hijackings, assassination attempts on prominent figures and various terrorist acts all across the world, most notably, the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am flight 103 which killed 270 people (most of them American).

After imposing sundry sanctions on Libya, and even bombing Gaddafi’s house in 1986, during which his adopted daughter was killed, the magical year of 2003 saw West’s warmer approach towards the colonel. The sanctions were lifted by both the US and the UN (US rescinded its trade embargo in 2004). What happened? Gaddafi officially took the blame for the Pan Am flight bombing, agreed to pay compensation to the families of the victims, and most importantly, eliminated his WMD program (the US government claimed it was due to their invasion of Iraq). Then, we could see him shaking hands with Tony Blair and getting praise from the American and other Western officials.

What’s interesting about those facts is that it had been proven years earlier that Gaddafi had nothing to do with the explosion of Pan Am airplane, and it had been known that Libyan intelligence officials had offered removal of its WMDs before the invasion of Iraq. Again, the geopolitical intricacies prevailed over truth and justice – the West simply tried to convince the people of the world that its policies actually work. It is enough to take a look at the situations in Iraq and Libya today to realize how they work.

The Forgotten Companions

The above examples are by no means exhaustive. Just to name a few more: the Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega, was convicted by the US for drug dealing he had done while on CIA’s payroll; the notorious Romanian ruler, Nicolae Ceaușescu and the Spanish fascist leader, Francisco Franco, were America’s good friends – the US president, Richard Nixon, even toasted the latter in Madrid. These autocrats may appear pretty benign compared to Cambodia’s genocidal lunatic Pol Pot, whose organization, Khmer Rouge, had been responsible for deaths of 2 million people. After Uncle Secretary had converted to the righteous ideals of the West, Uncle Sam injected him with some cash, decided that his mass murders weren’t really a genocide and gave him a seat at the UN. If one finds these examples a little outdated, we may always look at our new most hated villain, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who, at our request, happily tortured our prisoners, and the recently ousted Egyptian head of state, Hosni Mubarak, who ensured we would never see them again.

Consciousness Is Key

The ubiquitous bunk emanating from our TV screens, computers and phones has given our politicians celebrity status and has made us accustomed to their impunity. These days, we don’t even know if we are lied to, because the mainstream media have abandoned their role of holding authorities accountable for their wrongdoings. Little do we know about facts, as editors select only those ones which suit their agenda. We see evil, hear evil, and speak evil only if it’s against our governments’ supreme values which come down to two words: big business. And for those of us who haven’t yet realized – we’re only included in paying up, not getting profits. Therefore, it’s up to us to breathe down our governments’ necks, not acquiesce to their “truths” and trust their superior knowledge. We need to be more conscious and daring to call things what they are. If change is about to come, it’s up to us to make it happen. No one else will do it for us.