List of Leaders Who Are So Bad Its OK For Bush to Overthrow Them

RaulGroom

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Wed Mar-24-04 12:16 PM
Original message

List of Leaders Who Are So Bad Its OK For Bush to Overthrow Them

Edited on Wed Mar-24-04 12:34 PM by RaulGroom

Hey everyone:

In the past couple of years, George Bush has started a lot of wars and supported a couple coups. Whenever he starts one, it seems there are a lot of people on this site who think it's a good idea because whoever happens to be leading the country we are attacking, either covertly or overtly, is such a dastardly, thuggish goon that even though war is bad and all of that, obviously anyone with a brain should support our overthrow of such a horrible and undemocratic junta.

What I find suspicious about this, and I suspect a lot of you are feeling the same way, is that we never hear much about how evil these leaders are until just as Bush and his cronies start attacking their countries and massacring their civilians, which is of course OK because the leader of the country is bad and insane and terrible and all the rest.

Now, far be it from me to suggest that anyone here is a part, witting or unwitting, of the right-wing warmongering propaganda machine. I'm sure we're just seeing a bunch of people who already thought these countries needed to be invaded, or their governments overthrown in a coup d'etat, or whatever, before the Bush propaganda machine geared up, but that until the country became big news, they figured it just wasn't relevant. That makes sense, and I think we can all agree that's a reasonable explanation that allows us to discount the possibility that there are a lot of people at DU who are dedicated, for whatever reason, to spreading pro-war propaganda as a general rule.

Just to make sure, however, and to set the more conspiratorially-minded among us at ease, could we please get a list from all the non-pacifists in the audience of all the countries in the world whose leadership is so evil that we ought to either overthrow the government in a coup or invade, whichever is necessary?

That way, when Bush announces his intention to invade a country, or when he comes out in support of a military coup, we can rest easy when we see all the DUers supporting him, because we can just look at this thread and understand "OK, cool, that country is on the list."

Also, to make it easier on both those of us referencing the list and also those of you who will be putting it together, please include a brief description of why exactly you think we ought to be supporting the violent overthrow of that government. Doesn't have to be long or particularly illuminating - remember, the pacifists won't be critiquing it - it's mostly just to make for easier assembly of the list. For instance, if someone puts Syria on the list and puts "Corrupt monarchy that supports terrorists," someone else can come along and it might remind them to add Jordan as well.

To make it easier on you, and to give you an idea of the format I'm looking for, I made a few entries myself that we already know about. You can just fill in the rest whenever you get a chance.

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Country: Venezuela
Reason: President Chavez brutalizes the population, represses free speech

Country: Haiti
Reason: Aristide failed his people and was corrupt.

Country: Iraq
Reason: Saddam was a dictator and tortured and murdered a bunch of people.

Afghanistan:
Reason: The Taliban were repressive religious zealots who supported and harbored those responsible for September 11th.

(Submitted by Virginian)
Country: Zimbabwe
Reason: President Mugabe brutalizes the population, represses free speech, free press, free elections.

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