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With wars waged abroad purportedly for "spreading democracy", it's time to face some uncomfortable truths. People are awake and aware that the U.S. and the West doesn't give a fig about democracy. They care about puppets -- people in state power who are answerable to them -- and fear democracy more than terrorism. From Karzai in Afghanistan, Siniora in Lebanon, al Maliki in Iraq, and beyond, people are rising up against these shills for Western, corporate interests. Protests from Kabul to Pakistan are raging against America's alleged allies, who rule by brutality, barbarity and torture. There are several reasons for this state of affairs, but perhaps it all bubbles down to two: Abu Ghraib, and the Iraq invasion/occupation. American performance on the ground, their treatment of Iraqis, the chaos that has seized the country like a fever, had fueled protests far beyond the borders of Iraq, blowing around the world like the borderless wind. The war in Iraq, and all of its consequences, has caused the U.S. to be one of the most-feared and most-hated nations on earth. Beyond the rhetoric of democracy lies the gloved hand of international business; or, in a more commonly-used term -- globalization. Globalization is far more than the newest expression of an old economic theory (capitalism); it is the force that requires the installation of puppets throughout the Middle East. One of the many, many protesters against the Siniora regime in Lebanon, in explaining her opposition to the government, voiced a concern not usually translated for American audiences: We are peacefully contesting the government to show that people without a voice are actually the majority... It is only the rich people who have a voice in this current government, while the middle and lower classes are not listened to. There is a class mentality in this government. [Fr.: Jamail, Dahr, "Lebanon: this protest won't go away," Asheville Global Report (May 3 - May 9, 2007), p.12]. The reason for this infiltration? Oil Do you really think that Americans suddenly care about Arab suffering? One glance at the pain of Palestinians will answer that question. Indeed, life under any of America's allies in the region ain't no cup of tea; in Eygpt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or in Iraq, democratic activists have faced the brutality of their regime's police in the streets, and the sneer of their torturers in the dungeons beneath the streets. America's response is little more than stony silence, broken intermittently by the cold academic listing in the State Dept. report. The message couldn't be clearer: "We'll talk about democracy, but that's it!" The U.S. didn't march to Iraq to bring democracy, to spread freedom, or anything even remotely like it. It didn't go there to stop the oppression of Iraqis. It didn't go there because Saddam Hussein was a "bad guy." It went there to make that access to the most precious commodity left on earth, oil, was there. And, it figured, as a Superpower, it was its imperial due. Every nation in the world knows this. Billions of people around the globe know this. The tragedy is that there are still a few Americans who claim to believe in this madness. If there really waas democracy, America's closest allies would be out of a job (at the very least, or hanging from the spires of their professional palace. If there really was democracy either in the U.S. (or Britain), the most unpopular governments in generations wouldn't still be in power. From Death Row, this is Mumia Abu–Jamal