Collegiate Times

After two years of writing columns for the Collegiate Times, it is a pleasure to look back at what I have learned from my fellow columnists, readers and my own experiences.

More and more, I find myself with a growing respect for all forms of dissent and the courage necessary to challenge the dominant economic and political structures. The great journalist I.F. Stone, when asked to give some words of advice, responded with a simple truth; governments lie. Not democracies or dictatorships, not capitalist or communist, just governments. It does seem that governments (or those in government) invariably trace national difficulties to outside sources. Thus, we find that American insecurity is blamed on terrorism, not our own policies; economic troubles are attributed to China, not our own mismanagement.

Looking to those countries we consider adversaries and the rhetoric is reversed, though not altered. When the Israeli government justifies offensive measures with the threat of Palestinian terrorism, it is referring to a very real (and very terrible) phenomenon. Likewise, when Hamas justifies rocket launches on the basis of the Israeli occupation, its basis for action is grounded in a humiliating and inhumane occupation. But the Israeli occupation no more justifies Palestinian suicide bombs than Palestinian bombs justify the Israeli annexation of Palestinian lands.

So where does this leave us?

In the rhetoric of our leaders and the mainstream media (from Fox News to The New York Times), we find tremendous American sympathy for the courageous dissidents in societies such as Iran and Syria. We sympathize (rightly) with the women protestors who are beaten in Iran and the democracy advocates that are tortured in Syrian jails. And yet when one looks to the op-ed pages and the White House press releases, where is the concern for the Saudi Arabian lawyers and human rights activists serving prison terms in similar circumstances? Why do we ache for the freedom of Iranian women but not for Saudi women? Why don't our politicians passionately denounce the beating and killing of protestors in Egypt? To anyone familiar with American foreign policy, the answer is obvious.

Egypt is a close ally that pulls in more than $1 billion of military aid every year. The same goes for Saudi Arabia, though in smaller numbers. It is of course the same justification that leads Hugo Chavez to rail against the American occupation of Iraq but not, say, the Chinese occupation of Tibet or the mistreatment of women in Iran. Frankly, we need to outgrow this stage or reflexive defense for our historical national policies.

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