Written by SM Gibson at theantimedia.org
ISIS is coming to get you. The terrorist group, also known as the Islamic State, monstrously beheads its victims. How dare we allow such mammoth human rights violations to take place anywhere in the world, especially in 2015! To stop this travesty, the United States government must violently intervene and continue its cycle of perpetual war in the Middle East. Bombs must be dropped and children must be maimed, but don’t fret, because this is the price of our freedom.
This is, of course, the script recited by politicians and corporate media pundits alike. “ISIS is beheading people, so they must be exterminated,” has almost become a modern mantra for those representing the military-industrial complex.
Is ISIS a vicious collective of terror-inducing cutthroats? Most certainly. Have they beheaded their victims like masked medieval savages? No doubt. But the question remains: Are they the only ones in the world partaking in such barbaric activities? Not by a long shot.
Saudi Arabia, the studious ally of the United States, has just beheaded its 100th person since January 1st of this year. If you aren’t interested in doing the math for yourself, that’s 100 people killed by beheading in only six months. In fact, that number is on pace to crush the record for modern day Saudi executions, according toAmnesty International.
The previous mark was set in 1995, when 192 were put to death.
King Salman, who has held the throne since his half-brother, King Abdullah, died on January 23rd of this year, is chasing this murderous record like a juiced-up Barry Bonds of executioners.
Last year saw the most beheadings by Saudi Arabia in the Abdullah era, when 87 people were decapitated over a 12-month span. It has taken the new king only half the time to not only surpass, but obliterate, his predecessor’s morbid milestone.
Saudi Arabia is consistently ranked as one of the worst human rights abusers on the globe. Freedom House, a nongovernmental group that tracks human rights, currently rates Saudi Arabia as one of only 10 countries on the entire planet that are “not free” and awards the nation their lowest possible score.
When King Abdullah passed away earlier this year, how did the U.S. government respond to his death? Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sponsored an essay contest—via the Department of Defense—to honor the late monarch. President Obama also went on the record to say that, “King Abdullah’s vision was dedicated to the education of his people and to greater engagement with the world,” and that he “always valued King Abdullah’s perspective and appreciated [their] genuine and warm friendship.”
Since Washington is prone to focus on the atrocities carried out by one group while completely turning a blind-eye on another committing identical crimes, the question now becomes, why are “We the People” not calling out our elected officials on blatant hypocrisy?
The Bush family has famously consorted with the Saudi royal family for years, despite its substantiated human rights abuses. The Clinton Foundation has accepted anywhere from $10 million to $25 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 1999. Not so ironically, both of these families are once again vying to become president of the United States. We were even told that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi Arabian and the U.S. government’s response was to bomb Iraq!
Meanwhile, we are supposed to believe that the Saudi’s are our allies while we champion even more bloodshed in neighboring Middle Eastern nations. Nations, who by the way, Saudi Arabia has had a history of feuding with.
Have you started to notice a pattern yet?
The next time you hear someone say that the U.S. engages in military conflict for “moral reasons” or to “liberate an oppressed people,” please show them this article and kindly suggest that they cease viewing the world through star-spangled lenses and start realizing that we’ve all been duped.
Either that, or you can tell them to shut up.
Sources?
Google it. I just read a report on the Saudi involvement in 911 and our country’s response. Most of the 911 perpetrators were Saudis, and the US allowed Saudi officials and royal family members to fly (during the post 911 restricted flight period) around the US collecting their loved ones, then leave the country.
The sources are the colored letters in the article.
Executions that occur under rule of law are much different than mass kidnappings, executions, and bombings of innocent people outside of any rule of law. I’m not condoning Saudi Arabia’s justice system, but the difference needs to be acknowledged.
The end result is about the same though isn’t it.
Looking at the “end result”….. can you explain me the difference between an american and a saudi arabian death penalty?
Jep
MACh33 shows clearly the mentality of a American with double morals 🙂
It’s about as much the same, as any other country using capital punishment compared to a rogue group doing mass killings.
Yeah, it all ends with a person dying, but i feel it is obviously more nuanced than that.
The united states are executing people in droves as well.
So barbarism is okay as long as its exercised under the “rule of law?” Man people like you make me sick to my stomach. I guess according to your logic the holocaust was okay too since it occurred under the rule of German “law.” Get your head outta your ass.
I’m not in any way a holocaust supporter, but if the Nazi party did succeed in their plans, almost no one would have given a damn. “History is written by the victors.” ~ Winston S. Churchill. ‘Acts of war’ are commonly overlooked or exaggerated but the victors to further increase public opinion.
Decapitation is much more humane than the chair, firing squad or a lethal injection.
Actually, but definition, Rule of Law means that it isn’t strictly Barbarism by the original definition.
Now admittedly, beheading someone is cruel and possibly unnecessarily violent. However I will point out that in this case it is mostly criminals being beheaded, not innocents like ISIS is doing. Comparing an execution where the perpetrator willfully committed a crime where they harmed someone else to beheading people who have done no wrong calls into question the judgment of the author.
Now, of course I do not support the beheading of any innocents or even criminals. However, I do support the Death Penalty for some crimes: Mass Murder, Multiple Rapes, Serial Killing, Serial Molesters, High Treason and so forth. And honestly I believe the condemned should be able to pick their form of execution from a prepared list. In all cases the condemned should have all appeals exhausted before execution.
Even with all that belief on my side, I do not even imagine I have to right to tell someone else how to rule their nation that I am not a citizen of. I can make observations, but that is all the ‘right’ I have.
Bradley manning & wikileaks assange should both die then for exposing the illegal practices in usa_naziland?
According to your logic the holocaust was okay because it occurred under the rule of German “law.” Just because something occurs under the rule of “law” doesn’t mean its not barbaric and depraved you jackass.
What is strange in that, the execution is applying all under the rules of their Constitution. Just like 34 states in America doing execution in many other methods, like electrocution, gas chamber, firing squad. And this methods are more inhumanative than beheading.
Good article, so much western propaganda now a days.
Comparing capital punishment under a rule of law, with rogue killings is about as well thought through as you would expect from a site like this.
Your tax dollars help to pay for these murders. You are paying for this shit. We should have invaded Saudi Arabia after 9/11, they are the problem.
A good reason why Tim Cook is such a hypocrite. While he was fuming over Indiana, he had just opened stores in Saudi Arabia and placed his Middle East headquarters in Qatar where homosexuality can be punished by death.
Watch the BBC documentary Bitter Lake. And you will see that Islamic State is nothing more than the child of Saudi Arabia and it’s hell on earth Wahhabi Islamic beliefs.