Ira Chernus,  an illustrious journalist, author, and professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado in Boulder, in an interview published by Tikkun Daily on 01/23/2104, stated that “… we’ve spent over two centuries telling the rest of the world that it must live up to our creed of “all are created equal.” Yet we’ve spent billions of our tax dollars and much of our diplomatic capital supporting Israel’s domination of the Palestinians. The least we can do now is to ease our hypocrisy by making sure that Israel does protect the rights of all its citizens, telling the Israelis, in effect, “We recognize the error of our ways. Do as we say, not as we have done.”

This documentable accurate statement constitutes a reality which clearly reflects how out of sync the noble ideals, principles, and conscientiousness espoused and enshrined in our constitutional democracy have been in crucial instances, and how they have been undermined by the corrupted power structures of our governments for about a century, buy most particularly in the last sixty years.

Mostly Republican but as well as Democratic government leaders have relentlessly espoused the virtues of governance based on democracy based on justice, freedom, and respect for human rights in rhetorical political narratives, but in real practice the exact opposite paths have been shockingly and shamelessly taken.

To wit, in the form of just a few examples, one may mention the US power structure’s not only support for the most ruthless dictatorial regimes in Central America (Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras), in South America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile), in Asia (Indonesia, Philippines), and in the Middle East (Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia), but as well imposition of said regimes on the peoples of these countries.

In Chile, Brazil, Egypt, and Iran, the US has been instrumental in bringing about the collapse of democratically elected governments by providing their dictatorial corrupt oppressors massively with financial and military support, most particularly in Egypt (Mubarak and now General al-Sissi)  and Iran (Shah Pahlavi).

The present article however is meant to shed light on the shameful support by the US of the dictatorship of Bahrain, where the US Fifth Naval fleet is based.

Since the beginning of the Arab “Spring”, popular and peaceful demonstrations by democracy activists have been violently repressed and the participants have been egregiously punished for daring to express themselves critically of their dictatorship.    The Bahraini government has attacked demonstrators savagely,  killing many and injuring severely many more, and when physicians and nurses of the injured citizens were treated, the government decided to arrest and imprison them as well.   The government additionally requested and received  Saudi Arabian troops to assist in the brutal repression of these activists.  There was hardly any reaction by the US government to this heinous brutality.

On January 24, 2014, Amy Goodman, producer and director of the prestigious news program
Democracy Now, has interviewed Baharaini human rights activist Maryam Alkhawaga, who eloquently and passionately denounces the US stance vis-a-vis the dictatorship, something for which she and her family have paid dearly.

This horrific policy of acquiescence and support of these most severely repressive, corrupt, dictatorial regimes world-wide is further exacerbated by in contrast, the surreal and bizarre US policy of “exceptionalism” towards the Apartheid state of Israel which receives $20 million in US aid daily even though it is a clear violator of international law, by sitting on illegally occupied Palestinian land, by its abuse of the Palestinian people, and by the fact that Israel is the only country in the Middle East which was allowed to clandestinely, but with British, French, and US support, to develop and arsenal of nuclear weapons, and furthermore by Israel’s refusal to sign on to the Nuclear  Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and by Israel’s  proliferation of the technology of  weaponization of nuclear technology to the former colonialist Apartheid, white supremacist, regime of South Africa.

“We the people” of this great nation deserve better and can bring about the reforms needed for us to “become all we can be” by ceasing and desisting to act as a neo-imperial power and instead becoming the republic we were founded for, namely a respectable and inspiring member of the set of nations which take care of their own people’s fundamental needs, particularly in the areas of public health and education.

Now that we are official a nation whose Congressional majority representatives are millionaires, the first reforms we must undertake are the electoral and congressional reforms which will turn our quest for democracy into one wherein “democracy” will  be genuinely participative and not a managed plutocracy corroded by special interests which not only meet our needs but in effect endanger rather strengthen our national security.

The US has neither a right nor an obligation to intervene in the internal affairs  of other nations, but it can engage constructively for world-wide progress and reconstruction and peace via the international organizations created for that function and those organizations themselves are badly in need of reforms so as become vibrantly functional.

PS  President’s Carter and Obama deserve high credits.   The former for his principled and conscientious focus on peaceful conflict resolution with an emphasis on the adherence to the preservation of human rights, and the latter for overcoming the barrage of incredible pressure by special interest lobbies aimed at absurdly derailing his successful and mutual respectful negotiations with the reformist democratically elected President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani.