U.S. government orchestrates anti-Lukashenko opposition
On March 19, Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected president of the Republic of Belarus with nearly 83 percent of the popular vote. The result confirmed all the pre-election polls, which predicted a lopsided Lukashenko victory.
This did not stop the imperialist countries and their faithful media outlets from asserting that the Belarus elections had been rigged. They demanded the annulment of the elections and called for new elections along “democratic” principles. Bush called President Lukashenko “Europe’s last dictator.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice identified Belarus as an “outpost of tyranny.” Belarus has been moved near the top of the list of nations due for “regime change.”
The neocons only pretend to support democracy. Witness Belarus where, like Venezuela, their leader was elected in a fair vote. Yet the Bushies want to overthrow the government. Sounds like they’re the ones who hate freedom.
Belarus having a fair election? What’s next? Upholding the decency electoral politics in Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan?
Just because the neocons don’t like a particular regime doesn’t make that regime pure and virtuous. That kind of logic is peculiarly neocon, and it’s odd to see it applied here. It’s also the kind of logic that led to the rise of Taliban in Afghanistan, a particularly delicious irony.
Even if it wasn’t a fair election, and most reports said it was, that the neocons want “regime change” there is indefensible. What gives them the right to invade anywhere they want, to topple governments they dislike. And why defend it?
Imperialism is an ugly, nasty thing.