POLITICS
Vlad the Impaler
And Other Monsters
Vladimir Putin is an evil man.
There are no two ways about it. Somehow all the people who oppose or even criticise him publicly end up “mysteriously” dead. Whether by poisoning, falling off a balcony, becoming a victim of a plane crash or experiencing “sudden death syndrome”.
Putin is a dictator, a ruthless autocrat and people like him rule by fear.
The UK, via Lord Cameron, was swift to announce sanctions against the leaders of the penal colony where Alexei Navalny was being held before his untimely death. In his statement, the former PM and now Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs for the UK, said that:
“[…] Russian authorities saw Navalny as a threat and they tried repeatedly to silence him”.
One could have easily substituted “Russian” with “U.S.” and “Navalny” with “Assange” in that statement. I wonder if Lord Cameron would utter that as readily, while his country’s courts are now deciding Assange’s fate.
Perhaps not. It might be seen as an attempt to influence the courts. Why is it, then, that no one spoke up against the inhuman conditions of his imprisonment, which were widely reported since 2019? Why is it that all the unpleasantness in our otherwise democratic countries is always hidden under the carpet?
Dictators rule by fear and oppression. But democratic leaders too can rule by lies and suppression.
Most people wouldn’t call President Biden “evil”. I would hesitate to do so. He is, however, the product of a political system that is laser focused on perpetuating itself and protecting the interests of its donors above those of its own citizens. Notoriously, even Donald Trump had donated money to both parties long before he decided to run for office himself.
Biden might not be outright evil, but he’s certainly corrupt. He probably justifies his silence by thinking that the revelations Assange has made via Wikileaks over the years jeopardize his country’s standing as world policeman. He would be right to do so.
It still doesn’t make it right to kill the messenger. Particularly when the extradition request for Assange is based on the grounds that the leaks endangered U.S. “national security”. I fail to see how this national security is protected by covering up the murder of civilians and journalists in Iraq by U.S. soldiers.
The U.S. lawyers maintain that the reason Assange is prosecuted isn’t political. They accuse him of publishing sources’ names, thus putting them in danger and for encouraging hacking and theft against the U.S. government. It seems to me that a country allowing torture to go on on its behalf, but outside its borders, that has launched a war on false pretenses, destabilizing a large part of the Middle East and that is very casual on what is callously called “collateral damage” is much more sensitive when said “collateral damage” is suffered by its own.
This is a pattern. About a year ago, President Biden was quick to express his solidarity with the Uighur minority of China. He was noted for dragging his feet to do the same with the Palestinians in Gaza, however.
I’d also be hard-pressed to remember which whistleblowers were protected when revealing state crimes in the U.S., but did so “in the right way”, while the protections afforded to corporate whistleblowers seem to be much more robust. It’s not hard to see why. A corporate whistleblower is protected against their former employer by the government. Who will protect someone who blows the whistle on the U.S. government? A neutral government is a risky bet, as Assange found out. It’s no wonder that Snowden ended up hiding in Russia.
Assange’s prosecution isn’t about “national security”. It’s about securing the image of the U.S. as the defender of freedom and democracy. It’s about selling and expending huge amounts of ordnance on various “wars for freedom” all over the world. It’s about lucrative reconstruction and mineral extraction contracts, quietly signed after the dust of destruction and democracy settles.
It’s about being able to maintain the monopoly on lying and killing without consequence. Biden is not as bad as Trump. He’s certainly not as bad as Putin. I’m sure that he does what he does because he thinks that this is just how the world is and he has no other options.
But this is probably how Trump and Putin also justify their crimes to themselves.
It’s just a matter of how far one is comfortable to go before drawing the line.
