The Honduran People Will Pay for Our Shameful Behavior
I am truly ashamed of the way my government is treating the people of Honduras.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton terminated a large part of U.S. assistance to Honduras Thursday over the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya and said that Washington would not recognize the results of elections scheduled for November.
The State Department announced Mrs. Clinton’s long-expected decision as she met with Mr. Zelaya in Washington. She had temporarily suspended aid shortly after the June 28 coup, but Thursday’s move makes the cut permanent.
“The secretary of state has made the decision consistent with U.S. legislation, recognizing the need for strong measures in light of the continued resistance to the adoption of the San Jose Accord by the de facto regime and continuing failure to restore democratic, constitutional rule to Honduras,” said department spokesman Ian C. Kelly.
This is reprehensible and the State Department is dead, flat wrong. The Honduran government is the de jure government of Honduras since what it did to depose Manuel Zelaya was in accordance with its laws and the requirements of its own Constitution. This is not in dispute among people with basic levels of reading comprehension.
Alas, this is politics and not reality. Unfortunately, we won’t suffer a single minute for our decision. The people of Honduras, who have worked hard to establish a stable democracy so they can finally pull themselves out of abject poverty, will pay instead. They do not deserve this treatment from us. They deserve our praise and all the help we can possibly give them.
To borrow an oft-used Obamaism, let me be clear. Our government is demanding that the current government of Honduras violate its own laws to return a man to power who ignored the lawful orders of his own courts and deliberately attempted to violate the Honduran Constitution to satisfy his own desire to remain in office longer. Our position is shameful and wrong and it needs to change.
The President should turn around on this issue right now. He has put us on the side of tyrants and that is never a place the United States should be. Not ever.
UPDATE: One of the Quotes of the Day at Hot Air. Thank you, Allah.
UPDATE 2: Smitty asks a couple interesting questions. I’d like to hear the administration answer them.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Again, the President Has Chosen Poorly
- What, Didn’t We Have a Copy of “Red Dawn” Lying Around?
- Meet Your New Neighbors…Russian Bombers?
Category: Alliances and Allies
Make no mistake, we'll pay for this too. You know, the left carried on for 8 years about how Bush was "making us unpopular." But our allies and enemies understood that if Bush said something he meant it, and our allies, especially, understood that if they needed us, we were there for them. They're learning from Obama that he means nothing that used to stand for America, and that he loves despots more than he loves allies. Or, despots are his allies.
Linked this and your last post. Some additional thoughts on this one, besides the contrast of the two.
One of the more stunning disasters created by Our Idiot President and his leftist foreign policy team. We have sided with Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and some two-bit would-be banana republic dictator and against the Supreme Court and entire elected legislative body of Honduras.
Stunning.
[...] The President should turn around on this issue right now. He has put us on the side of tyrants and that is never a place the United States should be.” [...]
Why are you all surprised? The black Democrats have openly praised Castro pretty regularly and most of the Dems decided that between Bush & Chavez…Bush was the evil one of the two. So of course they are going to side with their ideological "brothers" against a democratically elected govt. And why shouldn't they? With everything else that is going on, no one is even talking about this outside of blogs that I know of. I mention it to my non-news consuming friends and they have no idea what I'm talking about.
[...] grab. Obama and Hillary are punishing them for it, while most pay no attention. Jimmie Bise is rightly ashamed of what our government is doing: Our government is demanding that the current government of Honduras violate its own laws to [...]
[...] aware of the disgusting decision the Obama administration has made this week regarding Honduras, HERE is a very short piece written in plain language, yet packs the appropriate punch. [...]
Right on Brother, right on.
Linked to at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/2009.08.30_arch…