Friday, September 29, 2006

Classic Doublespeak from Belarusian Dictator

Radio Free Europe (particularly their fine reporter Jan Maksymiuk) is reporting on recent statements by the Communist dictator of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, calling on the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (Russia and many of the countries formerly under the Soviet Union) to counteract what Lukashenka called "information aggression" from "new crusaders." The dictator, who vociferously denies freedoms of speech, press and religion to his own people, argued "A war for people's minds is now under way." Furthermore, he claimed, "The arsenal of the new crusaders includes the distortion of spiritual and moral values, the elimination of nations' historic memory, and the propagation of interethnic and interdenominational discord. This war has the specific strategic goal of changing by force the political and economic systems of states that pursue an independent course of development. That is why collective resistance to this expansion means a real effort to strengthen the security level of our countries and the commonwealth as a whole."

Classic doublespeak.

The relevant "distortion of spiritual and moral values" in Belarus comes not from the outside by from the corrupt and extremely coercive actions of the country's illegally elected President. And then, in statements that unavoidably point out his hypocrisy, Lukashenka told the same audience that the police state, which poor Belarus has become, will get even worse as vowed to expand yet further the powers of the State Security Committee (read KGB). "We tend to speak about this less [than others] and somehow bashfully. It's a mistake. We speak more about the United States and other states that make enormous efforts to reinforce their intelligence services and bodies. But if they are reinforcing them -- it's clear for what purpose -- why are we afraid to speak about what we should do, about the need to reinforce ourselves?"