In yesterday's paper, the Alligator re-published a column by Dartmouth College student Alesy Iturrey condemning Ernesto "Che" Guevara and the widespread use of his image.
The author's anger toward Che seems out of place for a student who simultaneously glorifies President Barack Obama and the NATO bombing campaign in Libya.
Before condemning the famous Argentine revolutionary, Iturrey should look a bit closer to home if she is truly concerned about human rights violations.
The NATO-backed Libyan rebels, supported by Obama, have systematically targeted, tortured and lynched black African migrants in Libya. Comprised of an unholy alliance between al-Qaida and Western-educated corporatists interested in privatizing Libya's oil, these so-called ‘rebels' have a lot more in common with the Ku Klux Klan than the bogus freedom-fighter image painted by Iturrey.
One of the most startlingly naïve contradictions in yesterday's piece was Iturrey's condemnation of Che for carrying out executions "without due process." The irony isn't lost on anyone who remembers how Col. Moammar Gadhafi was executed without a trial as a P.O.W.
Gadhafi was brutally sodomized with a knife and tortured before one of the rebels delivered the death blow, after which his body was mutilated and placed on grisly display in a commercial freezer by the new rebel government.
Why does Iturrey condemn Che, someone who died more than 44 years ago, when President Obama currently aids and supports bloodthirsty fascists like the Libyan rebels?
The U.S. consistently glorifies the image of leaders who have a "complete disregard for human life or civil rights." Hanging in public schools for eight years was the portrait of President George W. Bush, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. That same leader of "the most well-known example of democracy" in the world also conducted illegal surveillance on innocent American citizens without court warrants and incarcerated people without due process.
Since his ascension to the presidency, Obama and the Democrats have been eager to continue, enforce and further expand on these policies, as evidenced by impending indictments on the 14 anti-war activists whose homes were raided by the FBI last September for their dissent.
According to research conducted by the ACLU and the U.N., the U.S. has, in the past four years, violated international law numerous times. Some violations include the use of drones on civilian-dense populations, continued CIA-led renditions and the systematic use of torture on Americans and non-U.S. citizens alike in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and prisons throughout our own country. More than 120 individuals detained and tortured have died in U.S. custody.
We agree, it's misguided to compare President Obama with a message of hope. What hope has Obama offered the more than 2,000 Libyans annihilated by NATO's ruthless bombing campaign of the city of Sirte earlier last month?
We affirm Iturrey's commitment "to become more informed of world issues." She should start by taking a close look at the present atrocities and human rights violations committed by our own government.
And the next time Iturrey wants to condemn people for glorifying a so-called "ruthless leader," she ought to open her wallet and take a good look at the mass murderer staring back at her on our $20 bill.
Dave Schneider and Cassia Laham are political science seniors at UF.
