Fairy Tales and Human Rights

A few brief thoughts;

first, I wanted to post a piece from the estimable Monthly Review; http://www.monthlyreview.org/.

The story of the break-up of Yugoslavia was the trial balloon in terms of propaganda for all that has followed (meaning Iraq, etc). The demonizing of Milosevic, and Serbs in general, was a fable that stuck because so much effort was put into its repitition … and because, for whatever reason, it came about at the right time in terms of the marketing strategies of Empire. This was the moment of the rise of the *human rights* movement, which in a very essential way co-opted radical dissent. Never mind, as Herman points out, that the entire story regards the Balkans was pure bullshit, the supposed Serb nationalism, the supposed rape camps and atrocities, and genocide. Diana Johnstone’s book Fools Crusade, and later John Laughlin’s Travesty, would be essential follow up reading, if any were desired. The point is that the US and corporate gangster class wanted to break up the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and create a collection of small client states open to western business. Let me add regards my allusion to *human rights*; which is the cover story used to justify US Imperialist aggression all over the planet, that what one usually finds when the spotlight is selectivly focused on one of these violaters, are western business interests. One often hears about human rights violations in places like, oh, Cuba, Kosovo, Tibet, or Zimbabwe. We, of course, do not hear about human rights violations in, oh, the US, England, or any other western country, nor do we hear about the human rights violations of the US military (ok, not often anyway, and hardly ever in the mainstream media). The bombing of Belgrade was marketed as a *humanitarian intervention*. Even the invasion of Iraq was so marketed (and many liberals — like those who signed the Euston Manifesto) supported the invasion as a just war to stop the human rights violations of Saddam and to spread democracy. The credo of *human rights* zealots is one that suggests the west (the US!!) has the right, or even the obligation, to interfere in the affairs of other countries. Usually because of *human rights* abuses. Now, trying to define what a human rights abuse might be is a pretty impossible task, and cultural relativity aside, the blindness to the violations of the west is what is really obvious in this entire meme. The recent demonizing of Iran is a good case in point. Lets remember that one of the biggest setbacks of US domination was the overthrow of the Shah (1979). The Iranian revolution blindsided the US empire, and so today one shouldnt be surprised at the need to demonize this country and attack it for human rights violations. The *conscience* of western do gooders seems always to be in the service of Empire, somehow. This new ideology of human rights has targeted (of late) Chavez, Castro, Putin, and Morales. Before that it was Milosevic. The liberal left, the cruise missle left (as Ed Herman once called it), the latte liberal class, all need these salves to their conscience — the George Cloony lets invade Darfur crowd — and yet rarely do these people ever really investigage the history of these places nor consider the destruction casued by western Capital. Recently here in Poland there was an attack on Polish soldiers and a diplomat by the Iraqi resistance. The public and government response was to insist that the *geo political concerns* and the saftey of Poland was the larger issue and such deaths were a small price to pay. Well, small price for you maybe, but not for the guys who are now DEAD. Not to mention, what geo political concerns might be these be? Who is about to attack Poland I wonder? Did I miss something? There is also, in this entire human rights debate, a fair degree of hypocricy. The US is a close pal of the Saudi Kingdom, and by anyone’s yardstick this is a serious human rights violator. The list goes on, of course, Kuwait, Egypt, Pakistan, and a couple of the other ‘Stans. So, really, its this question of what we mean by rights. I want to get into this again at a later date. I’ve mentioned passports before, but its worth a discussion to raise issues about freedom of movment, and how people are defined (the rise of the poor as a class is a case in point; as feudalism faded in most parts of the world there were new vagabonds not “attached to the manor” as records of the time have it…and the control of this new class became an immediate concern of the ruling class). In any event, the Monthly Review piece is really worth a read for those who still cling to the fairy tale official version of the Balkan wars.

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We get so few comments that I wanted to point toward two we just got about Guy’s post Uber Alles. Um, uh, the evil dictator Chavez? Christ, he was democratically elected twice. And more knee jerk demonizing of Iran …(”hell bent on the destruction of Israel”). You know, its fascinating to examine the way propaganda works… and the fact that Israel was some two hundred nukes deployed and ready for launch does nothing to deter the image people have of this country as a victim. Strange. The other comment mentioned Lenin (and I don’t want to get into that debate again, but…) the so called brutality he exhibited was in response to a very real counter revolution. Again, a better awareness of history is always useful. Still, I appreciate the comments, and wish we got more!!

John Steppling