Conservatives Pretending to Care About Human Rights Again

Dear Prof. Reynolds and Mr. Simon:

Just a quick note to assure you that I really, really tried to get defensive about this:

It's frustrating to read stories like this. You want to do something, but you don't know how. I quickly clicked onto the websites of Human Rights Watch and PEN (of which I was once the West Coast president), hoping they could do something, but found no references to Abdel Kareem under either spelling. Maybe I missed something. I checked Atrios and the Daily Kos as well, but nothing there either about their fellow blogger. Perhaps they are unaware of what is happening. You would think this was a situation that would transcend domestic politics - the guy's going to the slammer - but so far apparently not.

Where to begin? First, try to avoid being completely wrong about one of your targets. Second, it's probably not the best tactic to wonder aloud why human rights don't transcend partisanship while you're engaged in a partisan attack. Making your opponent laugh out loud sort of undercuts the needling effect you're going for. Third, in future bear in mind that google exists and provides ready answers from the very people you accuse during the last time Egyptian democracy was in the news:

[T]he more interesting question is why conservatives aren't jumping up and down about this. I think it's pretty obvious -- most aren't particularly concerned with spreading Democracy around the world. George Bush might actually be sincere in his new mission, though I don't think he has a deep grasp of what "democracy" is, but most of the rest of them aren't.

Republicans have never stopped being isolationist and anti-nation building (true of most of the US population, actually). They don't think tyranny leads to terrorism (nor am I claiming there's necessarily a strong connection), and don't really want to expend any treasure helping out "the other." What they do like is killing bad guys, and when George Bush says "spreading freedom and democracy" what they hear is "killing bad guys." They like killing "bad guys," and they're a bit lost without an enemy, so the actual spreading of democracy just doesn't excite them that much.

Which is to say, you're well-known to be hypocritical and opportunistic on this issue, trumpeting the "spreading freedom" rationale for invading Iraq after the "mushroom cloud" one didn't pan out. As well as the vigorous action in Darfur for which you were keen right up until the 2004 election. Afterward, you just tended to moan like a grocery clerk telling people his lane is closed:

Yes, of course. We should all do what we can. But this shouldn't be an exclusively American problem. It is a world problem. The United Nations, which was formed in the wake of genocide and was supposed to make the repetition of such horrors its number one priority, has not nearly done its job here, just as it did not in Rwanda. Why? Maybe there just isn't any money it.

The U.N. doesn't intervene in Darfur because there's no money in it? Funny, we were just thinking that about Bush. You know, Messrs. Reynolds and Simon, your political party did control the executive and legislative branches of the federal government for some years. Never mind invading, during that time couldn't Bush have scraped together a few pennies and conducted a bombing campaign against the Khartoum government, as he is preparing to do in Iran? Admittedly, there was no Security Council resolution to enforce, but that didn't stop him in Iraq, and there was precedent in President Clinton intervening in Kosovo (for no money, and over the strong objection of then-Governor Bush and other numerous prominent Republican elected officials).

So please forgive me for not getting worked up the way that you want. Call it Fake Outrage Fatigue, which results when the sufferer gets jerked around one too many times, and can only giggle and snort when someone tries to do it to him again.

Most sincerely,

Mithras Invicti

P.S.: If you ever sincerely wish for a united front against human rights abuses, I can provide you with Duncan's and Kos's email addresses.  Rather than starting off attacking them, it's much more effective to first try privately asking them to make common cause. Not only will this show your good intentions, it has a far greater chance of working.

Comments

[Sean C.]

If you ever sincerely wish for a united front against human rights abuses, I can provide you with Duncan's and Kos's email addresses. Rather than starting off attacking them, it's much more effective to first try privately asking them to make common cause. Not only will this show your good intentions, it has a far greater chance of working.

Nah, that'd make too much sense.

[Frederick]

Perfessor Corncob strikes again!

[John Emerson]

PEN is on the case. Search "Abdel Kareem" (Suleiman):

http://www.pen.org/media/Caselist_Jan2007.pdf

[Phoenix Woman]

Instadingbat and Slimin' Simon completely and utterly wrong on an issue? I'm shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you!

[Martin Wisse]

Fuck them both sideways until, you know, they actually stop propagandising for death squads themselves.

Until then I will assume that any outrage they feel about any human rights violation is just a case of jealousy that their country didn't get in on the act.