When Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama side with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro I can't help but scratch my head. When they remained eerily quiet during the obvious electoral shenanigans in Iran, one wonders why the questionable support for a "wannabe" dictator in Honduras! That's the issue, the ouster of Honduran President Mel Zelaya.According to the Wall Street Journal Zelaya tried to pull a Chavez and tweak the Honduran constitution to allow for him to become President for life. Just like Hugo.
The trouble is he didn't have the power. Though the law allows for the Constitution to be rewritten, there is a process that must be adhered to, including a referendum. Zelaya decided to call for it on his own though he had no power to do so and even went so far as to have his pal Chavez print up the necessary ballots in Venezuela and ship them to him.
The Supreme Court said, "Oh, no you don't" and ordered the military to see that the vote was not carried out. Zelaya then proceeded to break into a military installation where the ballots were being held and had them distributed in defiance of the Court.
The Attorney General stepped in, declared the referendum illegal and had Zelaya arrested, by the military, and exiled to Costa Rica.
It should be noted protests had already begun over his heavy handed tactics. Does any of this sound similarly familiar? He was also on the outs with church leaders and was about to be investigated to see if he was mentally fit to even be in office!
Reuters tells us Obama says the coup is illegal and that in our opinion Zelaya remains the democratically elected President. He's blaming it on a military coup though as I read both articles it would seem that the Congress and the Supreme Court were giving the military it's marching orders, well within their rights, after an attempted breach of that Constitution!
When asked if we would be curtailing aid, Clinton had this to say, "Much of our assistance is conditioned on the integrity of the democratic system..." What??
We were accused of meddling in Iran when we hadn't and probably should have. At least to the extent of criticising the brutal crackdown and questionable ethics of calling election while voters were still at the polls.
Now we choose to meddle in a situation that was being handled by a sovereign government according to their laws. We're siding with two bit dictators. That in of itself is frightening.
First we appear weak. Then we appear uninformed. Or two faced.
No wonder the likes of Ahmajinedad feel they can thumb their nose at us with impunity!
6 comments:
Actually, we have an ignorant president. He is uninformed because he thinks he knows it all. His way is the only way. And, as is with most of his ilk, he is arrogant and brimming over with self entitlement. It's going to be a scary ride. Will this country survive? CU
Actually, I think the vitriol of your opinion tends to diminish it. I do not agree that he is ignorant or thinks he knows it all nor is he brimming over with self entitlement.
You seem to feel there is no gray where I feel there is too much.
I wish our country... no matter who is our President, would not feel like they have to fix everything everywhere. In this case we surely are stepping on toes to say the least, heck we are mashing them. We should butt out and let the piece fall where they may. After all it is THEIR country. And they seem to be handling it quite well.
Actually, sounds to me like he was talking about Bush. It fits the previous one more than the current one.
The problem with our government is that it has an inconsistent foreign policy. Everyone knows this. Since the 1950s, our government has helped right wing dictators come to power and we've overthrown leftist regimes, even if they were democratically elected.
The president doesn't have much power to change the status quo. If they try, they will meet the same fate as JFK. There's a new documentary about JFK and how he refused to go along with 5 different covert operations and had he lived, he would not have committed troops in Vietnam.
RFK was probably assassinated because he wanted to get the U.S. out of Vietnam. Let's face it, the neo-conservatives are in control of our government and they want war wherever they can get it. U.S. foreign policy is all about maintaining the USA as the world's sole superpower well into the 22nd Century.
Ignorant doesn't equate to stupid. Obama is quite intelligent and well educated. His behavior is ignorant and I stand by self entitled. AF One = date night. That is self entitled. CU
That is your opinion and luckily... only your opinion. I am of the opinion that we need to allow other nations to choose their own form of government and stay out of their affairs.
We would have a fit and fall in it if some other government tried to impose theirs on us.
Personally although I don't agree with all the president's policies, I think he is sincere and I think he is intelligent...something I can not say about the previous administration who was just itching for war. Look at the mess they got us into.
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