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Copyright
© 2001 - 2008 CONTEMPL8 T-SHIRTS |
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Why
I made the t-shirt "They
Hate US for Our Freedom... They hate imperialist Ambitions, Arrogance, and AGGRESSION!!! Remember when the NAZIS decided that Poland was theirs? After the US had been punched in the face on September 11th, 2001, George W. Bush (stars circling his face in a daze) suggested that the US had been attacked by people who hate freedom. This is quite a vague and misleading statement. But clearly Bush is right about one thing: hate is the motivation for the attacks. The people who commited them do not hate freedom, but they do hate the US quite a bit (and they are not alone). If you are familiar with US and World History for about the last fifty years and stay abreast of news and current events, then you know that many people all over the world hate the US. They don't hate the US because of the freedoms enjoyed here (those that are left!) or because they despise the concept of freedom generally. Rather they hate the US because they see the US Government's foreign policy as restricting, preventing, or even taking away the freedoms of other countries and peoples. The US dominates world affairs to a great extent, leaving much of the rest of the world without a say in many areas (even in their own domestic affairs sometimes!). The US has acquired the power to essentially unilaterally decide many matters for the entire world. For instance, the US has prevented international treaties aimed at cleaning up the environment like the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases from going into force [the Kyoto Protocol finally has been realized with no help from the US, due to Russia finally signing on to it]. Whereas the great, great majority of the rest of the world has come to the consensus that this treaty is urgently needed, the US has prevented it. There are many other treaties and matters of international law that are similarly popular with the great majority of the rest of the world that the US has also flouted: weapons bans such as the anti-landmine effort and anti-nuclear proliferation efforts, the International Criminal Court and many others. In addition, the US Government seems to have little respect for the sovereignty of other countries. The US Military has unjustly waged war on a huge number of countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Panama, and Vietnam just to name a handful) resulting in catastrophic damage and massive losses of life. The US Government has also sparked, sponsored, supported, and/or participated directly in the violent overthrow of governments all over the world. Many of the governments overthrown have been democratically elected governments; and many of the regimes installed following these coups have been despotic. Take Nicaragua, Guatemala, or Chile for example. Or the most recent example: Haiti. President Aristide was the first democratically elected president in Haiti's history. US Government agencies trained and covertly supplied violent thugs with M-16's. These thugs are responsible for the 2004 coup d'etat and the resulting chaos and repression that is still prevailing in Haiti. US military and intelligence agents have been accused by Aristide of kidnapping him... forcibly flying him to an exile in the Central African Republic (a country ruled by a dictator). Check out Democracy Now! for news reports on Haiti's most recent coup and its consequences. There are many more examples! Many thousands of innocent people have died as a result of these coups and their aftermaths, effects of which often continue to this day. The US Government also favors economic policies that disadvantage working people in the Third World to ensure that US corporations can pay the lowest wages possible to those who labor for them and so that US consumers continue to have access to cheap goods. This robs people of decent wages and working conditions all over the world. The so-called "undeveloped world" remains undeveloped largely for the benefit of US corporations and consumers. There is a direct connection between the widespread poverty that persists internationally and the vast wealth enjoyed in the US and other western countries. For example, the US Government works hard to keep labor laws weak or unenforced in many other countries. In Colombia, US weapons and economic aid donated to help fight the War on Drugs ends up in the hands of paramilitaries who kill labor leaders (more labor leaders are assasinated annually in Colombia than in any other country). John Perkins, a former self-described "economic hitman" employed at the super secret NSA, attests to the economic sabotage and espionage wreaked on countless foreign countries by the US government. US dominated international banking institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank give loans to desperate Third World governments with very harsh interest rates and other conditions (such as the forced privatization of publicly owned assets, transportation fare increases, government sector layoffs, tuition increases and education cuts, etc.) that harm those countries immensely. The loans are invariably renegotiated regularly because the countries are unable to keep up their payments. Over time, these countries pay many times more than the original amounts they borrowed, but the loans never get paid off. This strangles the economies of Third World countries, causing an unending cycle of debt that locks the countries in perpetual economic servitude to the US and other western countries. The US Government has helped to prevent and stifle democratic elections in some countries. The US Government has helped to repress movements for democracy in some countries as well. The US Government, it should be mentioned, has helped some countries and peoples. But, typically only when it suits their own interests to do so. The US Government proclaims that it is the beacon of freedom to the rest of the world, but it counts many dictatorial and belligerent regimes among its allies and aid recipients. US foreign policy is riddled with hypocrisy and double standards. It is a program with one main goal: global domination by any means necessary. This is why so many people all around the world hate the US. This T-shirt takes what George W. Bush said in his speech following the attacks on September 11th and manipulates it so that it actually makes some sense. If the US has the freedom (or right) to dominate the rest of the world and wage war on anyone who resists, then perhaps Bush is right to say the US is hated for its "freedom". Germany, Italy, and Japan, the Axis Powers, had such an exclusive freedom in the 1930's and 40's, and the peoples of the countries they invaded and occupied certainly hated them.
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