Author : Caleb Maupin is a political analyst who lives in New York City, and is an activist with the International Action Center and Workers World Party. He was part of the Occupy Wall Street movement
In Crimea, some may be surprised by the US’s blatant rejection of a clear democratic mandate for independence, as leaders in Washington constantly boast of being “defenders of democracy.”
Back in 2003, George W. Bush justified his invasion of Iraq by saying he was “bringing freedom” to Iraq and “removing a dictator.” In 2011, Barack Obama justified sending cruise missiles to Libya by calling Gaddafi a “tyrant.” The US currently gives material support to insurgent groups in Syria, allegedly because Assad is a “dictator.”
Children in the United States, from a very young age, are indoctrinated to believe that the US fights for “freedom” around the world, and enemies of the US are simply those who reject it. The nauseating rhetoric of the US being “the greatest country in the world” is accompanied by a historical mythology that in each military conflict, from the conquest of the Philippines in 1899 to the Cold War, the US government was motivated merely by a desire to “defend” and “spread freedom” and to fight against “dictators” and “oppressors.”
Read the full story at: www.rt.com / link to original article
