Double Standards

Yes I believe in them! Not exactly, though I do hold democracies to a higher standard. So you might find me writing a few paragraphs criticizing some small aspect of policy of the US, EU or Israel while sort of glossing over big problems in Iraq or North Korea and you might yell “prejudice” or “moral equivalency”. You couldn’t be more wrong. Here’s the thing: Saddam, Kim Jong Il, and other dictators and absolute monarchs are a menace to their people. Usually I would make a general criticism of these guys in a sentence and that would be it. Don’t despair, I don’t think the US and Iraq are morally equivalent. In fact, I think I can’t even compare. Do you really think we want to be compared to these tinpot dictatorships like Iraq, Egypt, North Korea or China? Are we really that bad? One could be the scum of the earth and still be better than Stalin or Brezhnev. Is that something to be proud of?

So I’ll concentrate on those topics and countries that interest me more and I’ll criticize democracies more since they could easily do better. And I don’t consider countries like Egypt to be democratic in any sense even those they hold elections (with foregone results). You might find that I focussed more on Israel in the pieces below. I feel Israel usually does better than its rivals and it can do much better.

NOTE: I use “we”, “us”, etc for both the United States (where I have lived for the past 5 years) and Pakistan (where I grew up). It will usually be clear from the context who I am referring to.