The sermons of cowards
The powerful nations of the West are fond of preaching sanctimonious sermons about freedom and democracy to tin-pot dictators like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, but are too chicken to speak the truth to power when it come to the evils in their own back yards.
Kishore Mahbubani: The sermons of cowards | Comment is free | The Guardian: “Ten years ago, if anyone had suggested the US would reintroduce torture, the answer would have been ‘impossible!’ Yet the impossible has happened. Amnesty International has described Guant�namo as ‘the gulag of our times’. Despite their history of condemning human rights violations, no western nation has condemned the US government for Guant�namo. Miliband’s speech rightly applauded several brave Burmese people for standing up to the military government. They spoke truth to power, and at great personal risk. Sadly, even though he faced no personal risks, Miliband could not muster the courage to speak truth to power regarding Guant�namo.”
Notes from underground 