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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is lashing out at China, Iran, Russia and North Korea for being "forces of instability" because of human rights abuses of their own citizens and others.
Link Source (Fox News) : http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/20/us-says-china-iran-russia-are-forces-for-instability.html
In its annual global human rights reports released on Friday, the State Department singled out the four countries for egregious rights violations, including restricting the freedoms of speech and assembly and allowing or committing violence against religious, ethnic and other minority groups. It said that countries that undermine the fundamental dignity of people are "morally reprehensible" and harm U.S. interests.
"The governments of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, for example, violate the human rights of those within their borders on a daily basis and are forces of instability as a result," acting Secretary of State John Sullivan said in an introduction to the reports — one for each country and territory in the world. He said the U.S. aims to lead by example and promotes good governance, anti-corruption efforts and the rule of law.
In addition to harshly criticizing those countries by name, the reports, which covers 2017 and is the first entirely produced by the Trump administration, replaces sections on "reproductive rights" with one titled "coercion in population control." The shift underscores the Trump administration's anti-abortion position that has already manifested itself in funding for international health programs and has been criticized by women's health advocates.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had added the "reproductive rights" section in 2012 and it had remained a part of each country's report until this year. Beyond coercion, that section had previously called out countries that denied access to information and services for reproductive health, including contraception.
Traditional U.S. adversaries are hit hardest in the report. The entries for China, Iran, Russia and North Korea outline a litany of abuses blamed on their governments, which are also accused of failing to hold human rights violators accountable for their actions:
CHINA
The report said Beijing is responsible for arbitrary detentions, executions without due process and coerced confessions of prisoners as well as forced disappearances and "significant restrictions" on freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, religion, and movement.
In the "coercion in population control" section, the report says that China enforces "a coercive birth-limitation policy that in some cases included sterilization or abortions. In its first year in office, the Trump administration, as previous Republican administrations have done, pulled funding from the U.N. Population Fund, largely because of its work in China. The fund denies that it promotes abortion.
"China continues to spread the worst features of its authoritarian system," Sullivan told reporters on Friday.
IRAN
The theocratic Shiite government in Iran is responsible for executing "a high number" of prisoners for crimes that don't merit the death penalty, the report said, along with torture, jailing of dissidents, severe curbs on journalists, gays and religious minorities. It also accused Iran of taking few steps to investigate, prosecute or punish any officials who committed the abuses, citing a widespread pattern of impunity for offenders.
In addition, it said that through its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and Iraqi Shia militias, Iran "materially contributed" to rights abuses Syria and Iraq.
RUSSIA
Moscow was lambasted in the report for allowing a "climate of impunity" for human rights abuses and doing little to punish officials who violate basic rights. The report laments Russia's "authoritarian political system dominated by President Vladimir Putin," in contrast with Trump's reluctance to criticize Putin or the Kremlin directly.
The list of alleged transgressions by Russia is long. The report alleged that Russia allows "systematic" torture that sometimes leads to death, along with extrajudicial killings of gay people in Chechnya, which prompted U.S. sanctions late last year under a human rights law. Russia's "lack of judicial independence," crackdowns on journalists and political dissidents, and censorship on the internet and of foreign organizations was also sharply criticized.
NORTH KOREA
Ahead of an anticipated historic meeting in the coming weeks between Trump and leader Kim Jong Un, the report accused North Korea of "egregious human rights violations" in nearly all of the categories included in the report. Forced labor, torture, coerced abortion and arbitrary arrests are all noted in the report, which also slams North Korea for extrajudicial killings, rigid controls over citizens' private lives and the use of political prison camps.
The report says that "impunity" for those offenses continues to be a problem in North Korea.
SYRIA
President Bashar Assad's government is accused of widespread atrocities, including chemical weapons attacks on civilians using sarin and chlorine — two agents the U.S. has said were used in this month's attack near Damascus that led the U.S., France and the U.K. to launch airstrikes. The report also accused Assad's government of starving civilians, "thousands of cases of torture," attacking hospitals and raping children "as a weapon of war."
SAUDI ARABIA
Despite the harsh tone toward Iran, the report for Saudi Arabia — another country run under a strict version of Islamic law — is more measured. It notes without comment abuses that are similar to those in Iran, including unwarranted executions, the lack of free and fair elections and discrimination against women and homosexuals.
The report offers only mild criticism over the kingdom's military intervention in Yemen's civil war, which has long been blamed for high numbers of civilian casualties.
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US Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II
Link Source (Global Research) : https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-ha...-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051
After the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental sorrow and a feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to permeate the American psyche. A few people at that time attempted to promote a balanced perspective by pointing out that the United States had also been responsible for causing those same feelings in people in other nations, but they produced hardly a ripple. Although Americans understand in the abstract the wisdom of people around the world empathizing with the suffering of one another, such a reminder of wrongs committed by our nation got little hearing and was soon overshadowed by an accelerated “war on terrorism.”
But we must continue our efforts to develop understanding and compassion in the world. Hopefully, this article will assist in doing that by addressing the question “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?” This theme is developed in this report which contains an estimated numbers of such deaths in 37 nations as well as brief explanations of why the U.S. is considered culpable.
The causes of wars are complex. In some instances nations other than the U.S. may have been responsible for more deaths, but if the involvement of our nation appeared to have been a necessary cause of a war or conflict it was considered responsible for the deaths in it. In other words they probably would not have taken place if the U.S. had not used the heavy hand of its power. The military and economic power of the United States was crucial.
This study reveals that U.S. military forces were directly responsible for about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq Wars. The Korean War also includes Chinese deaths while the Vietnam War also includes fatalities in Cambodia and Laos.
The American public probably is not aware of these numbers and knows even less about the proxy wars for which the United States is also responsible. In the latter wars there were between nine and 14 million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan.
But the victims are not just from big nations or one part of the world. The remaining deaths were in smaller ones which constitute over half the total number of nations. Virtually all parts of the world have been the target of U.S. intervention.
The overall conclusion reached is that the United States most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world.
To the families and friends of these victims it makes little difference whether the causes were U.S. military action, proxy military forces, the provision of U.S. military supplies or advisors, or other ways, such as economic pressures applied by our nation. They had to make decisions about other things such as finding lost loved ones, whether to become refugees, and how to survive.
And the pain and anger is spread even further. Some authorities estimate that there are as many as 10 wounded for each person who dies in wars. Their visible, continued suffering is a continuing reminder to their fellow countrymen.
It is essential that Americans learn more about this topic so that they can begin to understand the pain that others feel. Someone once observed that the Germans during WWII “chose not to know.” We cannot allow history to say this about our country. The question posed above was “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?” The answer is: possibly 10,000.
