Cat got your tongue?

"Never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence."

Bill Clinton said this in his speech when the U.S. finally got it's act together to respond to the genocide in Rwanda.

And yet, we are still being shy in the face of the evidence of genocide in Darfur, which is spreading into violence throughout Sudan and the region. We are still being shy in the face of the questionable human rights situation in China. We are still being shy in the face of our own duplicity in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Haditha, and elsewhere.

Yet we are outspoken in response to crises of our own American imagination and/or creation. We are outspoken against Iran. Against Cuba. We were outspoken against Iraq. We were shy in Afghanistan until the situation forced us to act.

And that, my friends, is the name of the game. We have a history of situational shyness. The western world, anchored by the U.S., in collaboration with NATO, and using the United Nations as its mouthpiece, selectively enforces its moral authority. It throws words like "genocide," "dictator," "rule of law," "victim" and "oppressor"around with no clear definition or set of standards. We use the names of the victims of past oppression to justify action (or inaction) depending on our whim. We will say that we should not do business with Iran, and do it in the name of the same economic sanctions used against apartheid South Africa.

Think back to the years leading to World War II...especially because in the last few weeks, President Bush and Senator McCain have decided to liken diplomacy with Iran to appeasing Hitler. But the truth of the matter is that Ahmadinejad is not Hitler. He's a (questionably) democratically elected head of state who, is yet to take any action, despite his hate speech. Yet, we must remember that in the run up to World War II, the U.S. did not appease Hitler, we ignored. More importantly, though, we actively ignored the plight of the Jews. Of course now, with the guilt of the Jews we wouldn't allow into the US on our minds, we blindly protect and advocate for Israel...ignoring the worsening crisis facing the Palestinian population.

I wish we would just admit that we will only defend our interests. That certain people and countries and resources are worth protecting and others aren't. That we will be shy in the face of some innocence. That the yelling and screaming that some of us are doing is in vain. That all the yelling and screaming in the world will not make the US act against China in asking China to step up against its human rights abuses in Tibet and being committed by their business partner Sudan. That all the yelling and screaming won't change the policy that identifies Iran and Cuba as a threat, but ignores real ones. That the women oppressed in Afghanistan didn't deserve intervening force until al-Qaeada flew planes into our buildings...at that point we grew concerned for the figures in the dark burqas.

Face it...we will always be shy in the face of the evidence.