In 1971, as Pakistan perpetrated genocide in what was to become Bangladesh, the United States took up position on the wrong side of history. Despite widespread genocide and military aggression, the Nixon Administration decided to support Pakistani strongman Yahya Khan in his brutal repression of Bangladeshi resistance. History would prove Nixon wrong. But that history was written at the cost of 3 million lives killed at the hands of the Pakistani military.
The US Policy toward Pakistan came to be known as "The Tilt". Declassified documents show the extent of Nixon’s support for what was universally condemned as genocide around the world:
Discussing the martial law situation in East Pakistan during March of 1971, President Richard Nixon, in his February 9, 1972 State of the World report to Congress indicated that the "United States did not support or condone this military action." Nevertheless, the U.S. did nothing to help curtail the genocide and never made any public statements in opposition to the West Pakistani repression.(4)
Instead, by using what Nixon and Kissinger called quiet diplomacy, the Administration gave a green light of sorts to the Pakistanis. In one instance, Nixon declared to a Pakistani delegation that, "Yahya is a good friend." Rather than express concern over the ongoing brutal military repression, Nixon explained that he "understands the anguish of the decisions which [Yahya] had to make." As a result of Yahya’s importance to the China initiative and his friendship with Nixon and Kissinger, Nixon declares that the U.S. "would not do anything to complicate the situation for President Yahya or to embarrass him. (Document 9)." Much like the present situation post 9/11, Washington was hesitant to criticize Pakistan publicly out of fear that such a tactic might weaken the dictator’s support for American interests
As the conflict in the Sub-continent began to grow, so did criticism of American policy leanings toward Pakistan. The administration denied that any specific anti-India policy was being followed. Declassified documents show that in addition to tilting towards Pakistan in its public statements, the U.S. also followed a pro-Pakistan line in the UN, in discussions with China, and on the battlefield as well.
Not only did the United States publicly pronounce India as the aggressor in the war, but the U.S. sent the nuclear submarine, U.S.S. Enterprise, to the Bay of Bengal, and authorized the transfer of U.S. military supplies to Pakistan, despite the apparent illegality of doing so.(5) American Military assistance was formally cutoff to both India and Pakistan. A combination of Nixon’s emotional attachment to General Yahya and his dislike for Indira Gandhi, West Pakistan’s integral involvement with the China initiative and Kissinger’s predilection for power politics greatly influenced American policy decision-making during this conflict.
In the service of perceived strategic goals, the United States has in the past been quite capable of ignoring gross human rights violations in favor of naked aggression. As I write this Israeli tanks are entering Lebanon in a repeat of their ill-fated occupation of Lebanon that ended in failure six years ago. But this time the Israelis promise it will be different. This time the Israelis say they will crush Hezbollah. This time more Lebanese will die.
As the United States rushes weapons to Israel to kill more Lebanese, our Secretary of State leaves for the Middle East to pay lip service to diplomacy. The United States has taken sides in this conflict. This conflict is not between Israel and Hezbollah – this conflict is between an overwhelming military force and a defenseless population. For every Hezbollah fighter that has been killed, innumerable innocent civilians have been blown up. Israel is succeeding in killing women and children in its ill fated quest to fight "terror". Now as the bombs continue to rain down, Israel adds to the killing with a ground invasion of Lebanon.
More civilians will die in Lebanon. We have already been told by the US Anti-Diplomat John Bolton that Lebanese civilian deaths are not morally equivalent to other people’s deaths. By such glib statements and by its resupply of Israel in the middle of hostilities, the Bush Administration is now morally responsible for every civilian that has been killed and will be killed in Lebanon. As children die in Lebanon today and the days to come, I want George W Bush and the mustachioed Anti-Diplomat to ponder the words of Mahatma Gandhi:
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
I weep for Lebanon today. I weep for a people that have struggled to put their country together after years of civil war. I weep for a country that had been lauded only recently as a symbol of progress in the Middle East. The cedars of Lebanon are on fire today. The country burns and its children die. All this destruction is being ostensibly wrought because 2 Israeli soldiers have been kidnapped by Hezbollah. Israel is killing Lebanese because it has failed to kill Hezbollah. People of Lebanon are dying today over a game of geopolitics that they are only expendable pawns in.
To the mothers huddled with their children, to the fathers holding their daughters tightly today in Lebanon, to the children of Lebanon, my thoughts are with you. My prayers are with you. Hold on to each other as this spasm of destruction passes over you. May God keep you safe.
[Hat tip to LithiumCola and Alfredo]
UPDATE: mariachi mama from the Daily Kos referred me to Robert Fisk’s poignant plea for Beirut entitled "Elegy for Beirut". Please read the whole article. Here is a brief excerpt:
Beirutis are tough people and are not easily moved. But at the end of last week, many of them were overcome by a photograph in their daily papers of a small girl, discarded like a broken flower in a field near Ter Harfa, her feet curled up, her hand resting on her torn blue pyjamas, her eyes – beneath long, soft hair – closed, turned away from the camera. She had been another "terrorist" target of Israel and several people, myself among them, saw a frightening similarity between this picture and the photograph of a Polish girl lying dead in a field beside her weeping sister in 1939.
Mash, I weep with you.. it is too horrible to think that the Fox loud mouths will justify anything that is happening and that , again, we, the people, seem to be unable to do politically influence any of the gov’ts actions.. it’s a democracy, how can that be? There are peace protests under way as we speak, and will continue to happen (wednesday 26 july) literally all over the world; europe, us, uk , canada, brazil, israel, kuweit, australia and a few more. I posted it last night, and I found it from a site called beirutsprings.com (sorry, forgot if it was singular or plural, I don’t have my site up.. I suggest to check out their site for continuing updates)
let there be peace on earth.. please!
Ingrid
I believe most of us would agree with your view, the terrible toll on the citizens of Lebanon. But israel does have a right to be safe and Lebanon has been infected by the Hezollah cancer. U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 calls for the removal of militia such as hezbollah.
For this unofficial army to cross into Israel, kill and kidnap soldiers and not expect some retribution is absurd. This is the time for lebanon’s leadership to toss off the Syrian shackles, call for UN and World support and rid themselves of this disease.
Then peace can be attained. Or so we hope at http://www.what-a-world.com
phil, do not confuse self defense with aggression. By any measure, this has gone well beyond self defense. It is also a violation of international law. However, it will never get past the Security Council because of the US veto. Feel free to read my previous post on accepted international law about self defense and a return to the status quo ante.
I am sure bombing the Lebanese will really make them toss out Hezbollah. Like it or not, Hezbollah grew up as a resistance movement in Lebanon because of the Israeli invasion of 1982. They have a lot of support in Lebanon because of it. They may practice terror by lobbing rockets into civilian areas in Israel, but so does Israel. And in the balance of death, Israel by far has the lead.
Israel cannot have peace by violence. The only solution is a comprehensive peace accord. A unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon without a political solution and then occupying the Sheba Farms and Golan Heights was never going to resolve the situation. The same goes for Gaza.
Its so convenient to pull out UN resolutions when it serves a purpose and then to ignore the ones calling for Israel to withdraw from Arab land.
I will tell you this hypocrisy in terms of citing UN resolutions only has an audience in the US and Israel.
As for the Lebanese people, I think its laughable when the Israeli Ambassador to the UN says that the Lebanese people should thank them for Israel’s help. That this is being done for Lebanon’s own good. Where have I heard that before? Oh wait, I think I heard stuff like that when we attacked Iraq.
This particular invasion will also have similar results. Make no mistake about it.
The Israeli’s are killing the Lebanese because two of their soldiers got kidnapped?! Why didn’t the Israeli’s just kidnap two of the Lebanese soldiers?! The Isreali government needs to learn math.
Fob, who needs to learn math when you have one ton bombs to drop with the click of a button. Lots of people get a hard on watching those bombs explode on CNN.
However, the “self defense” crowd conveniently brushes off the aftermath:
I am sorry for posting a graphic image, but I don’t have the patience today to make an eloquent argument while children are being blown up in the name of “self defense”!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2281184,00.html
Here is an interesting piece on hezbollah by amir tehari a veteran iranian journalist, which throws some light on what’s behind this war.
I cry for Israeli children, too. All, Israeli and Palestinians and Lebanes civilians are hostages to their warmongering leaders. Hezbollah doesn’t care either about Lebanese, nor of course about Israeli civilians. Israel doesn’t care about Lebanese, Palestinians, Arab Israelis or Jewish Israelis, as long as it’s “defending” itself. Hamas doesn’t really care about their own people either, their leaders will always find a place to stay in Damascus. Syria? Iran? They don’t care, but for their own influence in the Middle East.
Meanwhile children, elderly people and all the other helpless civilians are paying a horrible price.And let’s not forget the kind of carnage that would hit the region if the US should decide to stick a finger in this pie can be reviewed by looking at Iraq.
Politicians never care about the consequences of their acts to ordinary citizens, its citizens who have to make sure politicians know the consequences of the citizen’s ire. Getting voted out of office, the only thing that really hurts a politician.
I am 16 years old American born, my father is German-Irish American, and my mother born in Cyprus. Many kids my age, that live in America, don’t pay much, or any attention to what happens abroad. I have lived in Cyprus for 12 years so I have a different habit, I do pay attention. I have no relatives from Lebanon or Israel so my point of view is from America where I now live. I’ve seen the pictures and watched TV and I feel outrage and extreme hate against Israel. They are supplied and supported by my country, the USA, and I feel very ashamed and discrased to be considered American. I feel hate against my own country’s government now. With the American supplied weapons and military equipment Israel is much more powerfull than Lebanon. Since this started, over 2 kidnaped soldiers, you could feel from the begining that their intentions weren’t only to get their kidnaped soldiers back, but to do something much more. To punish the Lebanese for their “terorist acts”. I’ve seen pictures on CNN of a boy, and his baby brother crying in agony after getting hit by a Phosporus bomb. These children will live but with scars, and they will suffer for the rest of their life. Also, if I am right, it is against the Geneva convention to bomb civilians, and also Phosporus bombs shouldn’t be used. Israel is carelessly murdering the Lebenase population, and in my view they and America are the true terrorists, who are now terrorising the Lebanese. You cannot compare what is happening to the Lebanese now to any act of violence done to the Islaely’s by Hamaz or Hezbollah. What Israel is doing now is true terrorism and they should be brought to court for war crimes.