I’ve been following the Libyan revolution very closely for the past several days and frankly I’m disgusted. Not with the Libyans, who have shown the world how brave they are as they continued their fight to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi’s government despite attacks by his mercenaries and soldiers, nor am I disgusted with the members of the Libyan armed forces who refused to fire on their own people and defected to the side of the revolutionaries.

I’m disgusted with the coverage in the American media and the response to the revolution by the international community; a few hours ago I was watching CNN in the Journalism Department office and amid all the usual TV-vapidity they reported that the Obama administration was putting together military options to use against Libya.

Oh. My. F***ing. God.

All I can say is that the United States government must be run by a gang of murderous psychopaths and no, I’m not exaggerating for comedic effect. For hundreds of years the first reaction of the government to practically anything has been to send in the troops, or drop hundreds of tons worth of bombs on an area. In fact, we know from history that presidents have never shied from ordering the military to attack American citizens – it happened during the Civil War, during Reconstruction, against labor unions in the late 19th century, against the Bonus Army – peaceful protesters made up largely of World War I veterans demanding that the government pay them what it owed them – and in the 1960s when the National Guard was called out to college campuses and bayoneted or shot several students. After the Kent State massacre, Nixon had the 82nd Airborne Division stationed in the basement of a government office building because around 100,000 people protested in Washington, DC. I do not trust the American military to be like the Libyans and desert the government if they were ordered to attack the people.

The greatest problem with our government’s foreign policy is that it has been built around naked force in the service of often abstract goals. For decades, the Marines were constantly invading Latin American countries to enforce the dominance of companies like Dole and Standard Oil. Later in the 1980s the Reagan administration shipped money and weapons (in violation of several federal laws) to anti-Communist forces in places like El Salvador, aiding and abetting political repression on a scale that can only be considered genocidal. One Latin American dictator the Marines installed and Congress provided with “aid,” was Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. As a measure of how much of a monster he was, Dominican-American author Junot Diaz called him “[The Dominican Republic’s] Sauron.”

Other dictators supported by American cash and political clout include the Shah of Iran, the Kings of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman, Hosni Mubarak, Francisco Franco (Hitler’s pal from before World War II), Syngman Rhee of South Korea, the Somozas of Nicaragua, Chiang Kai-shek of Taiwan, Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Suharto of Indonesia and probably dozens more. All that repression, murder and torture for freedom and democracy makes me ashamed to be American.

Just as bizarrely, some European leaders have called for the imposition of sanctions on Libya. This is just as insane as invading them. Everything I’ve seen suggests that the best thing the West could do right now is airlift in food and medical supplies to the revolutionary-controlled East. Sanctions will exacerbate the situation by preventing food and medical supplies from being brought in. The United Nations – which elected Libya, Uganda, Saudi Arabia and China to the United Nations Human Rights Council – is holding hearings. By the time they write a stiffly-worded note of protest with all the truly condemnatory language removed so that it reads, “Dear Mr. Gaddafi, While, in no uncertain equivocations we find specific aspects of a small number of instances in your 42-year service to your country to be somewhat distasteful to our normative and unique cultural perspectives conditioned by our respective sociopolitical developments in regions far removed from Libya’s of the role of police tactics that some may find violate those norms, but which may possibly be justified where the public safety is at great risk, and therefore we ask you to please reconsider. Sincerely, the United Nations General Assembly,” he’ll have been forced out already. The Obama administration, the UN, the European Union: They should recognize the revolutionaries as Libya’s legitimate government.

The mainstream media coverage of the revolt has been equally repugnant. With on-the-ground coverage largely restricted to Al Jazeera English, CNN and other news sources have been devoting a substantial amount of coverage to the effect it’s having on oil prices. This is so selfish and close-minded. Look at what it says about us: We prefer cheap gas to freedom in the Middle East. I know we’re not like that, but that’s how it looks.

There are many positive things we could be doing for Libya, but instead the government is talking about invading them and the media is obsessed with money. No wonder the world hates us.

Matthew M. Robare is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].