Tunisia and the American Double-standard

More Tunisians have died in just a few weeks of protesting their dictatorship than Iranians in the entire post-election turmoil, in ’09 yet, American media and the Republican Party were falling over themselves to cover the crisis and condemn human rights abuses in Iran while staying relatively silent on the events currently taking place in Tunisia. Why the double-standard? I am not saying that what happened in Iran didn’t deserve the media attention it received nor am I saying that the Iranian regime didn’t deserve the rebuke, but I am pointing out that the hypocrisy is unnerving. The truth is, the Republican Party and the media are quiet about the Tunisian Revolution, and it is indeed a revolution, simply because the now-ousted dictator was near and dear to US policy in the Middle East and North Africa. To put it mildly, he was a dictator, but he was a US dictator, and the US supported him (to learn more about US relations with the Tunisian dictatorship, read this). The Tunisian Revolution is a nightmare for fellow Arab dictators.  The thing they fear most, more than another war with Israel where they’ll surely lose more land, is being toppled by a popular protest movement. We are already seeing the ramifications of the Tunisian Revolution reverberating in Jordan today. Here’s a video on the Tunisian Revolution. Here’s a video of the protests in Jordan.