citationsneededpodcast

Episode 190: Why Media Insists the US is "Forced" to Commit Human Rights Abuses

Added 2023-10-04 16:10:07 +0000 UTC

"Realities have forced us to remain on diplomatic terms with several dictators," the Pampa Daily News stated in 1958. "U.S. ambassador to the U.N Samantha Power has been forced to look the other way as [Saudi Arabia] does as it pleases in Yemen," Politico told us in 2016. Biden is being forced to accept the flaws of America's friends," claimed The New York Times earlier this year, 2023.

For decades, we've heard the same excuse regarding US foreign policy: 'Our leaders might not agree with the world’s dictatorial, reactionary governments, but they’re forced –– by some unknown geopolitical dark matter of realpolitik –– to support them for some broader, more noble goal.'

Strengthening ties with the governments of Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Israel, The Philippines, and other countries under right-wing, human-rights-abusing governance might be a bit unpleasant, but it’s the pragmatic thing to do and, therefore, the morally acceptable thing to do.

But countries that are not the United States or its allies are never said to be "forced" into carrying out human rights abuses or supporting those that do. They back bombings, ethnic cleansings, the oppression of women for the sport, because they are existentially evil. No outside mysterious entity ever "forces" them to have to make compromises on the altar of "reality."

But there is nothing, of course, "forcing" these decisions on our own Western leaders, and in nearly every case, they're simply extensions of preexisting geopolitical relationships, imperialist policies, and arbitrary might-makes-right governance.

On this episode, we discuss the media narrative that the U.S. is "forced" to maintain long-beneficial alliances with right-wing regimes, looking at how this suggestion falsely presents the U.S. as an unwilling, but ultimately helpless, participant in repression of human rights around the world.

Our guest is author and NYU professor James Peck.

Guest

James Peck is Adjunct Professor of History at New York University. Founder of the Culture and Civilization of China project at Yale University Press, he has written for The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications, and is the author of a number of books, including Ideal Illusions: How the U.S. Government Co-Opted Human Rights, which was published in 2010 by Metropolitan Books.

***

Show Notes

Biden’s Routine, Unremarkable Saudi-Israel Trip and the Tedium of Western “Human Rights Concerns” Theater

Adam Johnson | July 14, 2022 | The Column

Western Media Insists Biden “Forced” Into Partnership With Saudi Arabia—Despite Decades of Uncritical, Unbroken U.S.-Saudi Alliance

Adam Johnson | June 9, 2022 | The Column

Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen have been called war crimes. Many have relied on U.S. support.

Joyce Sohyun Lee, Meg Kelly and Atthar Mirza | June 4, 2022 | The Washington Post

Why Has the Biden Administration Hired 28 People With Ties to Saudi Arabia and the UAE?

Sarah Lazare | March 14, 2022 | The American Prospect

In Hosting Modi, Biden Pushes Democracy Concerns to the Background

Peter Baker and Mujib Mashal | June 21, 2023 | The New York Times

The Biden administration could have ended the brutal war in Yemen. It’s now making it worse.

Shuaib Almosawa and Sarah Leah Whitson | January 26, 2022 | The Washington Post

Biden’s $500m Saudi deal contradicts policy on ‘offensive’ weapons, critics say

Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Bethan McKernan | October 27, 2021 | The Guardian

Yes, the U.S. sometimes supports warlords and dictators. So when should we stop?

Max Boot | October 19, 2018 | The Washington Post

The Echoes of America’s Hypocrisy Abroad

Howard W. French | May 20, 2022 | Foreign Policy

US Provides Military Assistance to 73 Percent of World’s Dictatorships

Rich Whitney | September 23, 2017 | truthout

Dealing With Dictators, The U.S. Playbook Varies

Alan Greenblatt | February 22, 2012 | NPR

Loving Dictators Is as American as Apple Pie

Steven A. Cook | May 6, 2019 | Council on Foreign Relations

Helping Hurts: Why Supporting Dictators Can Doom Them

Sean Yom | March 7, 2016 | Foreign Affairs

35 countries where the U.S. has supported fascists, drug lords and terrorists

Nicolas J.S. Davies | March 8, 2014 | Salon

****

Transcript

For a full transcript of this episode, go here. You can find transcripts of past episodes and News Briefs here.

*****

Citations Merch

Remember that the Citations Needed merch store is open and holidays are coming up! Please consider further supporting the show by picking up a t-shirt, tank top, sweatshirt, tote or coffee mug for yourself or your favorite Citations fan (or everyone you know!).

******