Trump cheerleads for the torturers: Public adoration for the worst of the worst is taking a buzz

[riversedge]

USA TODAY


Trump cheerleads for the torturers: Brian Klaas

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/05/02/trump-cheerleads-torturers-erdogan-duterte-sisi-brian-klaas-column/101195282/


Brian Klaas 2:52 p.m. ET May 2, 2017
The fact that Trump is drawn to these brutal dictators sticks out like a sore thumb




Public adoration for the worst of the worst is taking a buzz saw to our soft power.
664109374 A POL GOV USA DC




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I’ve interviewed hundreds of pro-democracy reformers from Belarus to Thailand. Most plead with me to persuade my government — the government of the United States — to provide them with just a bit more support, a bit of hope against an authoritarian tyrant.

They want freedom. They want basic human rights. They want democracy.

The president of the United States is not on their side.

Instead, he consistently sides with the torturers and the oppressors over the tortured and the oppressed. That appalling decision will not only make the world a darker place, it will also damage America’s strategic interests.

President Trump has repeatedly said that “torture works.” He praised Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and said he wished his brutal regime was still in power. Since becoming president, he has praised Russia's Vladimir Putin, an authoritarian despot who murders journalists and dissidents. Trump congratulated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for rigging a referendum that effectively dismantled democracy in Turkey. He invited Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House, even though he has boasted about personally murdering people and is using death squads to kill thousands. Trump embraced Egypt’s military dictator, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, at the White House in April, though Sisi killed at least 900 people in a single day and routinely tortures his opponents.

This week, he praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “smart cookie” whom he would “be honored” to meet. Trump even went so far as to suggest that Kim’s ability to consolidate power in the dynastic dictatorship was “incredible,” even though Kim did so by assassinating relatives and murdering political opponents with flamethrowers and anti-aircraft guns.

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This leaves us with a series of uncomfortable truths about the lack of moral values in the White House:

The president of the United States has had harsher words for Meryl Streep and Nordstrom than he has for Putin, Erdogan, Duterte, Sisi and Kim.

Trump attacks our free press as “the enemy of the people” but defends dictators who kill, jail or torture journalists.

He has tweeted about “human rights” only once — to mock them. In comparison, he has tweeted about crowds 248 times and called someone a “dummy” on Twitter 77 times.
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[The Mouth]

1. Birds of a feather...