U.S. hypocrisy over Burma’s regime

DID ANYONE notice the irony that the day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Burma to preach to their country about respecting "democracy" and "human rights," the U.S. Senate voted 93-7 to allow Americans to be detained indefinitely without any charges?

Hillary was quoted as saying "any political prisoner is one too many." But the U.S. Senate voted to allow any American vaguely accused of aiding "al-Qaeda" be able to be sent to a prison for life without ever having to go to trial.

Isn't this obviously the exact opposite of a democracy--or am I living on a different planet?

There is no doubt that Burma is a repressive regime with many political prisoners, but what about cases here in this country like that of Troy Davis, a Black man executed recently by the state of Georgia with no physical evidence linking him to the crime he was accused of? On top of this, almost every prosecution witness later recanted their testimony against Davis, with several admitting they were initially coerced by police.

The United States has the largest prison population in the world, with many millions warehoused for nonviolent offenses such as substance use or reacting to built-up years of abuse by the capitalist system.

One can also look at the incredible ongoing violence and repression against Occupy movement protesters. Recently, police and the courts in Los Angeles blatantly violated California law by setting bail for many nonviolent Occupy protesters between $5,000 and $10,000 and holding protesters for more than the normal 48 hours on misdemeanor charges.

Is it not abuse to be forcibly cuffed in tight plastic handcuffs for hours at a time and packed tightly into a police van while being denied food, water and access to a bathroom? Reporters also have been brutalized and wrongly arrested all over the country for reporting on the Occupy movement in major cities.

It is clear that the ruling class' only idea of "democracy" is for people to vote to elect one of the two major parties serving the 1 percent during election season. They are terrified to see the Occupy movement cut entirely against this grain.

All over the world, the United States sends weapons and billions of dollars in aid to oppressive regimes such as Israel, which bulldozes Palestinian homes to make way for housing for only a certain segment of the population while denying Palestinians their right to return or to live in peace. For decades, the U.S. also has given weapons and aid to the repressive regime of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt--and today to Egypt's military rulers--to squelch the will of millions of Egyptians.

The people of Burma deserve democracy and to be treated with dignity and respect for their human rights--but they don't need "reforms" prescribed or imposed by the U.S.
Greg Morse, Providence, R.I.