In a damning indictment of the U.S. Government, Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy shared ?some uncomfortable thoughts about money, war, empire, racism and democracy,? in a May 13 speech sponsored by the Center for Economic and Social Rights. Her thesis: America has superceded its status as a mere country and become an empire where ?facts don?t matter.?
Ms. Roy?s 12 page speech, titled Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free) is packed with facts that Americans have either never learned or long forgotten. In 1963, for example, the CIA aided Iraq?s Ba?ath regime in systematically slaughtering hundreds of doctors, teachers, lawyers and politicians for their ?leftist? beliefs. In April 1980, while Saddam Hussein was exterminating Shias, U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinksi said, ?We see no fundamental incompatibility between the United States and Iraq.? So why, Ms. Roy asks, aren?t U.S. Government officials included on ?the infamous pack of cards of wanted men and women??
In addition to reminding us of some unsettling facts, the eloquent Ms. Roy delivers a few quotable zingers. Among her choicest sound bites, she calls America?s invasion of Iraq, ?the Doctrine of Pre-emtive strike, a.k.a. The United States Can Do Whatever The Hell It Wants. And That?s Official.? And she deems democracy ?the Free World?s whore, willing to dress up, dress down, willing to satisfy a whole range of tastes, available to be used and abused at will.?
?Erin Ferdinand
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Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)
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