Thread by @suryakane

Frankly, the US should never be showing up in Delhi to deliver sermons on human rights to the world’s largest and most diverse democracy.

Let’s take a look at America’s human rights record. And no, bygones are not bygones. The impact of human rights abuse spans generations.

https://twitter.com/pstanpolitics/status/1348367880111460355

Let’s start from the beginning. Over 100M indigenous Americans were killed over a 500 year period (D. Stannard). 90-95% were exterminated by colonizers in one the worst genocides in the history of humankind, so much so a study by researchers at UCL showed it changed the climate.

Has the US made amends? The govt handed over a few acres of reservation land. Yet, a third of indigenous Americans live in poverty, 13% above the national average. Median household income is $40k, which is behind that of African Americans ($41k) and whites ($67k). (ACS 2013-17)

400 years have passed since the first slaves were shipped to the US. Despite civil rights movements, access to education and jobs, black Americans are three times more likely to be poor than their white counterparts. And the US has to be reminded that black lives matter in 2020.

Respect for human rights in World War II were on fine display when the US detonated the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands and poisoning millions. A significant percentage of children of hibakushas (survivors), have mutated DNA even today.

The US war in Vietnam cost 2 million civilian lives. 400,000 deaths are attributed to the use of the Agent Orange defoliator. After the massacre, the “superpower” slinked back, defeated. For what? Ideological supremacy. Millions today still suffer the from Agent Orange poisoning.

Fast forward to two important events - the proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan using OBL and the Mujahideen and the Iran-Iraq war where the US supplied weapons to both sides. Counting the death toll immediately attributable to the US is tough since the job was outsourced

Since @pstanpolitics talks of Jakarta, it’s useful to note that the US supplied weapons to the Indonesian military for their campaign East Timor. Why? Ford said he needed allies after Vietnam. 150,000 civilians dead. Note Kissinger’s comments here when the invasion began:

The First Gulf War. 290 allied forces casualties. 100-200,000 civilians and an equal number of Iraqi soldiers, dead. Is that a ratio to be proud of? 350,000 orphaned. 8 million children left with psychological trauma and many more livelihoods lost under UN sanctions.

Afghanistan. Agreed, the hunt for CIA-trained OBL was needed in the aftermath of 9/11. He was found in a garrison town in Pakistan, a state which remained a “partner” in the war on terror. Did the violence against civilians stop long after OBL was neutralized? Nope.

The Second Gulf War. The US went to war under the false pretext of finding WMDs. An egregious violation of human rights unparalleled in modern history ensued. Estimates range from 185,000 civilians dead to over 1,000,000. Excess war related deaths: 100,000.

@pstanpolitics US hegemony involved killing off the America’s indigenous population, enslaving Africans, starting new wars to prove ideological supremacy, cleaning up after years of flawed foreign policy, testing new weapons, and enforcing regime change. So much for human rights.

It’s convenient for America to talk of its endless progress and point to its fine institutions, nestled between the Atlantic and Pacific. They are far away from the millions who died and continue to suffer the dire effects of brute interventionism and hegemonic prowess.

We should also never forget the US was built with the skulls of the “natives” and blood of salves, whose progeny continue to suffer materially in a deeply discriminatory society. Moral grandstanding and sanctimonious lectures on human rights, freedom and democracy ring hollow.

Does it mean that history should impinge on trade and people-to-people contact? Does it mean the US and India don’t share some values? Surely not. But the recent pivot of @CarnegieEndow to align with the Dem’s hypocritical stance on human rights will find few takers.