The Little Brown Reader

Arianna: ... And Human Rights For All?

Arianna is awesome. We don't always see eye-to-eye, but she writes a great column -- lots of them. This is one.

... And Human Rights For All?

With Saddam's weapons of mass destruction nowhere to be found, the president's Iraq talking points now center on the humanitarian upside of having ousted the Butcher of Baghdad. His speeches are liberally peppered with mentions of "mass graves," "torture chambers," and encomiums to "freeing the people of Iraq from the clutches of Saddam Hussein." He's all but doused himself in the sweet-smelling scent of human rights and put on an Amnesty International t-shirt.

His five-day visit will include stops in Senegal, Botswana, Uganda, Nigeria, and South Africa -- but not the absurdly named Democratic Republic of Congo, site of what one African expert has labeled "the worst humanitarian situation on the entire face of the earth."

Full column...

I don't support a doctrine of having the U.S. be the world's savior military force, but the bigger point in Arianna's article is right on target. Almost 4 million people have died in the Congo since 1998. If the U.S. is using liberation as a viable motive for going to war, cleaning up the Congo would be a no-brainer. And as Arianna says, maybe paying a visit during a tour of Africa. I guess Bush doesn't want to look hypocrisy so directly in the face.

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