Some people say that since the USA’s record on human rights protection is not perfect, we have no right to comment on or criticize the human rights record of any other nation.
This is a phony objection, of course; since no nation (or person) has a perfect record on anything whatsoever, adherence to such a ridiculous prerequisite for commentary would result in no one ever criticizing anyone for anything.
Nevertheless, it seems useful to make some distinctions between nations on some of these matters, just to make the point.
Abu Ghraib was an aberration. The abusers went to jail. It was not official US policy, before, then or since. Guantanamo gets enormous coverage, simply because the US government has revealed its existence, and details about it. Have you checked the list of political prisoners in Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, or Cuba, or China, or Russia lately? I didn’t think so. It would be hard to do, wouldn’t it? After all, they don’t exactly publish a complete list, do they?
Continue reading “Does USA have right to speak out about abuse elsewhere?”
