"Feeding the Hand That Bites"

Forget about credit cards and upside down mortgages. Americans have much more shameful debt habits than these. Most of us just don’t know about, and none of the press talks about, our other “dirty little secret.” According to our Treasury Department, we collectively owe other nations $3.2652 trillion just part of our over $11 trillion total debt). http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt
I say “we” because our government doesn’t really make any money, so whatever they owe – we owe. Aside from the size of our debts, the most shocking aspect is from whom we borrowed it (and, thus, whom we owe). Of our national debt: 24% is owed to Communist China ($767.9 billion); 21% is owed to Japan ($686.7 billion); and, perhaps most shocking, 6% ($192 billion) is owed to a group the Treasury identifies as “The Oil Exporters.” We know who China and Japan are; but, who are these “oil exporters?” Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria. Other than being our 3 largest creditors, what do these nations have in common? With the exception of Japan, they lead the world in human rights violations.

I know, I know … the waterboarding puts us on that list too, right? Baloney. It was only performed on 3 individuals, which (even if you agree it is a human rights violation) amounts to but a grain of sand next to the mountain of wrongs for which these countries are responsible. Chinese officials regularly beat and forcefully abort pregnant women. The Nigerian government does nothing to curb female genital mutilation (FGM), child sexual exploitation, human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution, and forced child labor. The Saudi government beheads women who are accused of witchcraft, and, as a matter of law in rape trials, accepts the testimony of a male defendant as fact while that of the female victim is treated only as a presumption (meaning at least one male witness must verify the rape in order to get a conviction). I could go on and on.

Americans have grown accustomed to boycotting businesses who engage in activities which we deem unacceptable. The American government and a whole slew of corporate interests loudly shed any investments in South Africa, or entities which did business with South African interests, in protest of apartheid. More specifically and recently, evangelical Christian groups and entire denominations boycott movies for objectionable content and refuse to buy from companies that offer benefits to gay workers. But we’re paying interest to human rights abusers in order that we can fund one federal bailout after another? Hmmm…