Tillerson: Human Rights are no longer a condition for US foreign policy

[ApatheticAustrian]

https://www.apnews.com/7afff2131d7b4b10b2c84b89c721b6c9?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics

https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/859836657926901760

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goodbye, US.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

[ApatheticAustrian]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

well, sometimes...and at least this was a very effective fig leaf which other countries took so literally, they worked with a similar approach.

and the US is not winning anything with this kind of "honesty".

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

well, sometimes...and at least this was a very effective fig leaf which other countries took so literally, they worked with a similar approach.

and the US is not winning anything with this kind of "honesty".

I understand, I'm just tired with people living in the bubble, implying everything was warm and fuzzy before Trump. It's not just stupidity, it's a very dangerous myth.

[ApatheticAustrian]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

well, sometimes...and at least this was a very effective fig leaf which other countries took so literally, they worked with a similar approach.

and the US is not winning anything with this kind of "honesty".

I understand, I'm just tired with people living in the bubble, implying everything was warm and fuzzy before Trump. It's not just stupidity, it's a very dangerous myth.

as a fellow european, i think i it just underlines once again: we are on our own.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

well, sometimes...and at least this was a very effective fig leaf which other countries took so literally, they worked with a similar approach.

and the US is not winning anything with this kind of "honesty".

I understand, I'm just tired with people living in the bubble, implying everything was warm and fuzzy before Trump. It's not just stupidity, it's a very dangerous myth.

Trump is certainly not some ultra-clear line, no (though it's going to likely be portrayed that way by bad historians in the future). The problem is that he's continuing the ongoing descent and making it steeper.

Look at it as a progression along these lines:

Bush: blowing people up with airstrikes, but not doing it very often, and not talking about it much.

Obama: blowing up people with airstrikes quite a bit, talking about it a lot, not mentioning the downsides.

Trump: "We need to kill their women and children". blowing up even more people with airstrikes, in more places, and it's become so commonplace we only talk about the extraordinary ones.


In other words, I find government hypocrisy about problematic decisions to be preferable to simply embracing them and saying they're not controversial at all. If my choices are between A) a government that makes morally questionable decisions, and then tries to cover them up because it knows they're wrong, illegal, etc, or B) a government that rejects any notion of morality and publicly celebrates evil, I'll take the government that at least has the good grace to be embarassed. B does a lot more damage to the fabric of our country than A.

(And yeah, this means I think that in many ways Bush at least claiming he was trying to do the right thing was better than Obama's silences and gravitas BS, or Trump's open embrace of cruelty and avarice as desirable.)

[Deblano]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

They were kinda under Jimmy Carter at most.

[Mr. Smith]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

They were kinda under Jimmy Carter at most.

And Herbert Hoover too.

[Associate Justice PiT]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

     Yeah, this is nothing new.

[Bismarck]

American interests and safety should be paramount, even if it means dealing with unsavory regimes. (Within limits of course)

[ApatheticAustrian]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

     Yeah, this is nothing new.

flaunting it like that IS something new, combined with all the dictator-mass-praising and democrat-bashing.

[I Won - Get Over It]

One less reason to bomb/drone? Fine with me.

Is it Trump's "flexibility" in foreign policy

[Ronnie]

It's no surprise that human rights mean nothing to an administration that is deporting non-criminals, and wants to gut health care coverage from millions.  I actually say it would be hypocritical if they took any other posture.

[Lumine]

The United States showing disregard towards human rights? I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

[Associate Justice PiT]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

     Yeah, this is nothing new.

flaunting it like that IS something new, combined with all the dictator-mass-praising and democrat-bashing.

     Given the extent to which this was already happening, perhaps it means that this administration is less hypocritical than the ones that preceded it. It certainly is still terrible and I am not happy with President Trump on this issue any more than I was with Presidents Bush and Obama, but the problem here goes far, far beyond Trump.

[Mr. Reactionary]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

     Yeah, this is nothing new.

Yeah, i mean, I don't remember us backing away from Kenya when noted war criminal Uruhu got elected in 2013. I remember obama posing for pictures with dictators from Ethiopia and Equatorial guinea. He reopened relations with cuba despite the castros still raping cuba. Obama paid millions in cash to the rights hating iranians. He was friendly with corrupt president hottie of thailand before she got couped. Bush and Clinton were friends with the saudi kings,  despite their country having abysmal human rights. Reagan sponsored mobutu and Kaunda. Purposeful ignorance is a hell of a drug.

[ApatheticAustrian]

doubling down on love-fests with assholes is not a sign of honesty and seems more like a feature than a bug in trump's administration...just sayin'.

[JA]

The issue isn't so much that the United States foreign policy no longer considers Human Rights a condition, because it rarely has, but that under Trump they've abandoned even pretending like it's a condition. America's foreign policy is now explicitly dedicated to self-interest. Despite the obvious problems with hiding behind the veil of human rights promotion, at least our message and rhetoric were aligned with their promotion. Now we won't even bother with that.

[Mr. Reactionary]

The issue isn't so much that the United States foreign policy no longer considers Human Rights a condition, because it rarely has, but that under Trump they've abandoned even pretending like it's a condition. America's foreign policy is now explicitly dedicated to self-interest. Despite the obvious problems with hiding behind the veil of human rights promotion, at least our message and rhetoric were aligned with their promotion. Now we won't even bother with that.

And yet he bombed Assad ...

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The issue isn't so much that the United States foreign policy no longer considers Human Rights a condition, because it rarely has, but that under Trump they've abandoned even pretending like it's a condition. America's foreign policy is now explicitly dedicated to self-interest. Despite the obvious problems with hiding behind the veil of human rights promotion, at least our message and rhetoric were aligned with their promotion. Now we won't even bother with that.

Trump's self-interest, maybe.

America's foreign policy is now:

whatever flatters Trump's ego this week.
whatever advances Trump family business interests
whatever advances the interests of Trump's billionaire cronies
whatever advances the interests of the GOP leadership and their wealthy donors
whatever emerges from the interaction of the professional diplomatic corps, the rest of the government, the military, less influential business interests, NGOs, etc. This last may actually bear some resemblance to a national interest foreign policy.


In that order.

[Tintrlvr]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

well, sometimes...and at least this was a very effective fig leaf which other countries took so literally, they worked with a similar approach.

and the US is not winning anything with this kind of "honesty".

I understand, I'm just tired with people living in the bubble, implying everything was warm and fuzzy before Trump. It's not just stupidity, it's a very dangerous myth.

as a fellow european, i think i it just underlines once again: we are on our own.

As so many Europeans (especially on the left) seemed to want until it was taken away!

[JA]

The issue isn't so much that the United States foreign policy no longer considers Human Rights a condition, because it rarely has, but that under Trump they've abandoned even pretending like it's a condition. America's foreign policy is now explicitly dedicated to self-interest. Despite the obvious problems with hiding behind the veil of human rights promotion, at least our message and rhetoric were aligned with their promotion. Now we won't even bother with that.

And yet he bombed Assad ...

So?

[Mr. Reactionary]

The issue isn't so much that the United States foreign policy no longer considers Human Rights a condition, because it rarely has, but that under Trump they've abandoned even pretending like it's a condition. America's foreign policy is now explicitly dedicated to self-interest. Despite the obvious problems with hiding behind the veil of human rights promotion, at least our message and rhetoric were aligned with their promotion. Now we won't even bother with that.

And yet he bombed Assad ...

So?

Trump broke his own america first position to do so and his justification was too many dead foreigner children.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

The human rights never were an actual condition for US foreign policy. Learn some history people.

[Kingpoleon]

Abandon these pretenses. The realism of Kissinger is needed now more than ever.