15 March 2011
By Jacob G. Hornberger I continue to be fascinated by the response of the
American people to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle
East. Specifically, I cannot understand why people
seem so blasé about the fact that their very own
government, including the U.S. military and the CIA,
have knowingly and intentionally supported and
partnered with brutal dictatorial regimes that have
used torture, indefinite detention, and other
tyrannical measures against their own people for
decades. After all, Americans pride themselves on being a
moral and upright people. Millions of Christians go to
church every Sunday and pray for God's guidance in
their lives throughout the week. Most people strive to
do the right thing. Consider the dictatorial regimes in the Middle East
against which people are now risking their lives in
peaceful or violent resistance to their own
government. For decades, the dictatorial regimes have
been maintaining control over their citizenry through
vicious, horrific measures. For example, if someone criticized the regime or
questioned its legitimacy, government agents would
monitor the person's activities. If the conduct
persisted, the person would be arrested, perhaps in
the dead of night with government SWAT teams barging
into the person's home, fully armed. The person would
be forcibly taken to a government building specially
designed to torture people. Electric devices would be
placed on the person's private parts. The torturers
would push the button, sending charges of electricity
into the person. After the torture, which could go on
indefinitely, the person would be released, if he had
conformed, or he could be jailed indefinitely and
tortured periodically until he got his mind straight.
This is how those dictatorial regimes have
maintained their hold on power — through terror,
torture, and endless incarceration. The message was
sent to the citizens: "We are in control. Do not
resist us. This is what will happen to you if you do."
People knew that if they violently resisted, the
dictator's standing army was fully prepared to protect
national security and maintain order and stability by
rounding up as many people as necessary, torturing
them, jailing them, and perhaps even executing them.
My hunch is that if you asked ordinary Americans
whether they consider this type of thing evil, most of
them would not hesitate. They would immediately
respond that of course this type of thing is evil.
American Christians would undoubtedly respond that
such tyrannical conduct is inconsistent with Christian
principles and with the principles on which America
was founded. Yet, everything seems to change when it comes to
the U.S. government's role in the evil. Keep in mind
that the U.S. government, including the president, the
Congress, the Pentagon, and the CIA, fully supported
and participated with those dictatorial regimes,
knowing full well what such regimes were doing to
their own people with those nighttime arrests, brutal
torture, incarceration, and even executions. During the entire time that all that evil conduct
was taking place, U.S. officials continued pouring
foreign aid into the regimes, helping them to maintain
their torture facilities and to shore up their
military forces. The Pentagon allied with their
military counterparts in the dictatorships, helping to
train them to be more effective military personnel.
The CIA entered into formal partnerships in which the
dictatorships' torture teams would torture people for
the U.S. government. It was all done in the name of
protecting "our interests" or ensuring "order and
stability." But if something is evil, then how can the support
of such evil — how can a partnership with such evil —
not also be evil? All too many Americans will simply not permit
themselves to consider the possibility that the reason
that so many Muslims are angry, hateful, and
radicalized is precisely because of what the U.S.
government has done to people in the Middle East. It's
obviously easier to let the mind drift to how violent
Muslims are or how bad a religion Islam is. Oh, sure,
Americans can easily understand why Muslims would be
angry and hateful toward their own tyrannical regimes.
But a mindset of deference to authority — reverence
for the federal government — support for the troops —
nationalism — somehow precludes such Americans from
seeing why people would be angry at a foreign
regime—i.e., the U.S. government — that has done very
horrific things to them too. Should the U.S. government be supporting and
partnering with tyrannical regimes that are admittedly
engaged in evil? Should the U.S. government be
involved in assassinations, coups, kidnappings,
torture, abuse, humiliation, wars of aggression,
undeclared wars, invasions, occupations, sanctions,
and embargoes against people in the Middle East and,
for that matter, anywhere else? Should the U.S.
government be killing people for the sake of political
goals, including regime-change operations? Is it just
possible that the U.S. government's actions in the
Middle East have radicalized Muslims and others into
bearing deep anger and rage toward the United States?
Is any of this consistent with Christian
principles? Has God actually created a universe in
which it is necessary for the U.S. government to
engage with and commit evil to protect the nation and
the citizenry? Does God want Americans to have a
government that is supporting and participating with
evil? If we are ever going to get our nation on the right
track, Americans are going to need to do some serious
soul-searching on the proper role of the U.S.
government in world affairs (and domestic affairs).
Christians in particular are going to need to do some
serious praying for moral and spiritual guidance when
it comes to principles of evil and right conduct. Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The
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