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Dick Cheney considered Nelson Mandela a terrorist!
King Tech Quadafi:
Dick Cheney is relying on our cultural amnesia to wipe away his record on South Africa.
By Joe Conason
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August 01, 2000 | "Whitewashing" is the only word to describe the weak explanations offered by Dick Cheney about his votes on South Africa during the apartheid era. Ever since the peaceful advent of democracy in Pretoria, politicians like Cheney who habitually coddled the old racist regime have escaped accountability for their actions. And he is still relying on our customary national amnesia to wave away the questions raised by his vice presidential nomination.
For American conservatives who misused their influence to defend apartheid, the controversy over Cheney's congressional voting record actually presents an opportunity to own up to their terrible mistakes. Unfortunately, however, Cheney and his supporters have prevaricated and obfuscated rather than admitting forthrightly that they were on the wrong side. This disingenuous response is a poor start for a man who boasts that he and George W. Bush will restore straight talk and integrity to the White House.
Cheney bristled in response to questions about his voting record, revealing a mindset that never understood what was at stake in South Africa -- or perhaps understood all too well. Challenged last Sunday to defend his 1985 vote against a House resolution urging the release of Nelson Mandela from 23 years of imprisonment, he first denounced such inquiries as "trivia." Does he really think that the oppression inflicted on millions of black citizens during more than five decades was a trivial matter?
He quickly tried to correct that gaffe, praising Mandela as "a great man." (He also remarked, with baffling condescension, that the African leader has "mellowed," whatever that means.) He had opposed the resolution to free Mandela, according to Cheney, because it was attached to recognition of the African National Congress.
"The ANC was then viewed as a terrorist organization," he said. "Nobody was for keeping Nelson Mandela in prison. Nobody was for supporting apartheid." Let's parse that feeble answer, one of several attempts to justify his votes that Cheney has offered in recent days.
The ANC, led of course by Mandela himself, was indeed regarded as "terrorist" by the Pretoria regime and its allies in Washington. But the ANC, which fought militarily and diplomatically for the human rights of South African citizens, was considered a legitimate representative of the black majority by civilized governments almost everywhere else. The resolution Cheney voted against called upon the Pretoria rulers to enter into negotiations with the ANC. That position was endorsed by governments around the world, and has been entirely vindicated by the events that followed.
If the ANC indulged in actions that might be considered "terrorist," it is at least as true that the entire apparatus of apartheid relied upon terrorism against millions of men, women and children. The Sharpsville massacre and literally hundreds of other atrocities committed against South African blacks and their neighbors in other states deserve no other description. That kind of state terrorism didn't much trouble the Reaganite ideologues such as Cheney.
Contrary to his sentimentalized recollection of that period, some people were indeed in favor of keeping Mandela behind bars and keeping South African blacks in bondage. The roster of infamy begins with Ronald Reagan, who upon becoming president in 1981 immediately reversed the Carter administration's policy of pressuring the Afrikaner minority toward democracy and human rights. In an early interview with CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, Reagan called South Africa a "friendly nation" whose reliable anticommunism and wealth of strategic minerals justified stronger ties between Washington and Pretoria.
infinite59:
Wow..... that's terrible...... This proves what kind of people we have in office..... how are these righteous people I'm supposed to trust?
Don Jacob:
so people can not change their minds on a matter?
so people are held to their mistakes from the past?
so people can't grow
i'm not saying he has or hasn't but are you people THAT judmental that you base your whole judgment on a person on one act. that is sad
no i'm not denouncing nor supporting your little crusade here, i'm just saying that you are being very nieve, hypocritical, judgemental, oh and here's the famous jake word IGNORANT , to a single indivual that you do not know at all what so ever
some one great once said " let my actions of the present respresent me , not my actions of the past"
fuck politics for one moment here, look what you are doing ......being and doing everything you think is wrong in united states government your little bergade here is as childish as hating nelly as a person becuase he makes poppy songs
man and they say christians are hypicritical and judegmental.....please
infinite59:
--- Quote ---so people can not change their minds on a matter?
so people are held to their mistakes from the past?
so people can't grow
i'm not saying he has or hasn't but are you people THAT judmental that you base your whole judgment on a person on one act. that is sad
no i'm not denouncing nor supporting your little crusade here, i'm just saying that you are being very nieve, hypocritical, judgemental, oh and here's the famous jake word IGNORANT , to a single indivual that you do not know at all what so ever
some one great once said " let my actions of the present respresent me , not my actions of the past"
fuck politics for one moment here, look what you are doing ......being and doing everything you think is wrong in united states government your little bergade here is as childish as hating nelly as a person becuase he makes poppy songs
man and they say christians are hypicritical and judegmental.....please
--- End quote ---
He still doesn't admit to his mistakes. And said that Nelson Mandela is more "mild" now. There's a reason he's more mild now. His ass isn't getting thrown in prison and kept in prison by dirty poloticians like Dick Cheney!!!!
Don Jacob:
the only person he has to admit his wrongs to is god.....not you not me not some preist .no one but GOD!
and whose to say he's wrong? if that's the way he feels then so be it that's Cheany......
live and let die
Afeni Shakur was a terrorist to the fullest , Malcome X was a huge hypocrit, Farrakan is a huuuuuuuuuuuge crook.....no one's ever brought them up now huh
and i wonder why.....
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