June 29, 2009 /

State Department Worked To Prevent Honduras Coup

I’m still catching up on all the news of Honduras, but I found this article to not be that newsworthy: The Obama administration worked in recent days to prevent President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster, said a senior U.S. official. The State Department, in particular, communicated to Honduran officials on the ground that President Barack Obama wouldn’t […]

I’m still catching up on all the news of Honduras, but I found this article to not be that newsworthy:

The Obama administration worked in recent days to prevent President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster, said a senior U.S. official. The State Department, in particular, communicated to Honduran officials on the ground that President Barack Obama wouldn’t support any nondemocratic transfer of power in the Central American country.

“We had some indication that a move against Mr. Zelaya was afoot,” said a U.S. official briefed on the diplomacy. “We made it clear it was something we didn’t support.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined Obama Sunday in criticizing the Honduran coup and calling for the restoration of the democratic process.

Sounds logical. Any sort of coup leads to political instability in a nation, and we don’t need anymore instability in the world right now. Like I said, not really news. Well not really until you start reading how the right is taking it:

Figures… Barack Obama meddled and worked to prevent the ouster of this leftist tinpot dictator.
…When a Leftist dictator’s career is on the line, Obama finds reason to meddle.
When Iranian democracy protesters are slaughtered on the street, Obama refuses to insert himself into the “debate.”

What is happening in Iran is disgusting, but we can’t distract from the fact that they did have an election and until proven otherwise it has to be considered legitimate. Besides, and as I have said before, can we really cast judgment upon other nations electoral system when ours has so many problems?

But now when you really start thinking about it you see something else happening here. It appears that the right is now against democracy. A coup is a violent takeover of a government. Nothing Democratic about that, but now Obama is the bad guy because he tried to stop something that is anything but democratic. Obama didn’t try to stop the results of an actual election in Iran, and didn’t push harder for unrest there (maybe leading to a coup) and he was wrong for it.

The dislike for democracy from the right should come as no shock. It has been Republican policy for years to try and support coups in other nations. They have engaged in this behavior in the Middle East for decades, and the product of all that work has been people like bin Laden. I don’t think we really need such a person in Central America. Do you?

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