Posted on 06/29/2009 5:18:13 PM PDT by FromLori
It’s time to kill the international community. The phrase, that is.
Usually shorthand for the governments of “the West,” the phrase is over-used (a Google search produces 447 million hits) and under-thought. It is often misleading and sometimes plain wrong.
“The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days.”
Which international community? Certainly not one that includes the world’s most populous country, China, where there were no signs of outrage. Instead, the Foreign Ministry endorsed the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the choice of the Iranian people and expressed hopes for stability.
Stability in this context means an uninterrupted flow of oil: a month before the Iranian elections and the ensuing turmoil, Iran overtook Saudi Arabia as China’s top supplier of crude. Traders said it might be a one-month blip but the figures highlighted energy-hungry China’s dependence on Iranian oil.
The Chinese government enforced stability at home 20 years ago by gunning down hundreds of anti-government street protesters and sending in tanks to clear Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. To prevent public commemorations of the massacre’s June 4 anniversary, the government blocked Internet sites in a massive censorship operation.
Russia, the only country Ahmadinejad has visited since the disputed elections, showed no signs of being appalled or outraged. Does that mean that China and Russia do not belong to “the international community”? For purposes of international finance, they do — both belong to the G20, the group of finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s most important economies.
“The Iranian people have a universal right to assembly and free speech,” Obama said. “If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect those rights and heed the will of its
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.reuters.com ...
Every time I hear “international community,” I feel like throwing a rock at the speaker. I see I am not alone.
Me too I wish I could reach through the tv and strangle them!
Which he never is.
Let’s all work towards making The First Thug as meaningless as those bland phrases he never tires of hearing himself utter.
“As I have consistently said...”
LOL. Which is always a lie.
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