Political Hypocrisy

Abraham Lincoln was said to have used the following example to define a hypocrite: “A young man killed his parents, then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.”

The Trump administration recently violated the sovereign airspace of Iraq and bombed Iraqi militia facilities. They, with Iran, have been fighting the Islamic State. The U.S. raid killed 25 Iraqis and injured dozens more. It was a U.S. revenge attack.

In a rocket assault days earlier, Iraqi militias had killed an American on a U.S.-occupied military base in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Media stenographers identified the fallen American only as a “contractor.”

The events that have unfolded since, including the U.S. embassy demonstrations, have been laid at the feet of Iran as if the Iraqis are incapable of thinking for themselves. This, too, defines hypocrisy.

M. Reza Behnam, Ph.D.

Eugene