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02/11/2005:

"Democracy According to Elliott Abrams"

by Larry Birns
Why has an admitted perjurer, a facilitator of death squads and an arms broker to Islamic terrorists just been appointed to be deputy national security adviser to President Bush?

It's tough to think of anything more "un-American" and less reflective of traditional family values than lying to Congress about illegal U.S. arm sales to a CIA-created band of murderous rightwing terrorists known as the Contras, and sticking up for death squads. Also, can one defend selling arms to Islamic terrorists by claiming that waging the Cold War sometimes required subscribing to the thesis that the end justifies the means? Given that Elliott Abrams managed to commit all the derelictions cited above, one might think that there was sufficient reason to prevent his name from being associated with the word "democracy." However, it appears that the Bush administration, as was the case of its appointing a known human rights violator like U.S. Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte (when he was the ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s), rewards those who offer the White House their blood-soaked resumes.

On February 2, the White House announced that Abrams was being appointed to the number two position on the National Security Council, where he "will be responsible for pushing Bush's strategy for advancing democracy." In terms of the outrageous, one could compare this to appointing Pinochet or Kissinger to head the inquiry into Chile's human rights record during the general's dictatorial rule, or Saddam's conversion to the Quaker faith.

A brief review of his more notorious exploits will show that no one in the president's neocon inventory would be a less appropriate candidate than Abrams to be the overseer of global democratization and to make certain that "freedom's on the march."
Full Article: counterpunch.org