When Edith Shain was kissed by a sailor on August the 14th 1945 in Times Square, America was celebrating the victory of freedom and democracy upon tyranny and the subjugation of people.
As we understand it, democracy means free elections, the rule of law and a judiciary system that makes sure everyone is entitled to a fair and balanced trial, in criminal cases in particular.
Hence the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials where war criminals were tried and condemned according to the fundamental principles of democracy, each of them assisted by a lawyer for example.
Sixty years or so later when the American led coalition invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, the aim of the war was to get hold of OBL until President Bush declared: ‘I truly am not that concerned about him’.
Ok, so the goal of this invasion shifted from catching a man into "helping" a country to adopt democratic values and to respect the tenets of democracy which means free elections, rule of the law and fair and balanced judiciary system.
A couple of weeks ago an American commando raided a town in Pakistan, got hold of OBL and deliberately killed him and dumped his corpse in the ocean.
I don't discuss the morality of the raid, the cold blood killing of OBL or the violation of Pakistan territorial integrity. I don't quibble either about how things should have or shouldn't have been done, I just have no opinion.
Fact is the whole thing was an indisputable breach of international law and democratic principles, the very same ones the U.S has been adamantly calling all countries around the world to abide to.
Now, the US is in Afghanistan to help this country to rebuilt itself according to the democratic values America has been championing for decades the world over while in the same time the US breaches international law by intervening in Pakistan and killing without due trial the spiritual leader of the people it fights in a country it occupies to teach its inhabitants to learn and to respect the democratic values it violates next door.
Is it me or is there something that simply doesn't fit here?
