General Wesley Clark famously told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now back in 2007 that the United States planned to "take out" seven countries in five years starting with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. Each of these countries aside from Iran, have had inner turmoil ranging from regime change wars to internal civil wars and civil unrest commonly incited by sanctions or blockades imposed by the United States and along with their European allies.
Recent events in Venezuela would have you convinced that Venezuela is one of the countries on the famed seven countries and five years list, but it isn't. Iran, on the other hand, is on that list and the war drums have been banging loudly for Iran. Sanctions have been imposed on Iran destabilizing their economy, but Iran launched an offensive campaign led by Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to try and keep the Iran Nuclear Deal in place even without the United States.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom created a Special Purpose Vehicle to allegedly allow European companies to supply Iran with life-saving food and medicine. Despite all of the rhetoric towards Iran, there isn't some broad consensus for a regime change war in Iran as we have seen in Syria which led to a catastrophic proxy infused war that displaced over seven million people, left hundreds of thousands dead and ultimately failed in its goal to overthrow Assad.
Sudan however, is a country that is on America's list of seven nations in five years, and when this "list" first surfaced South Sudan was still a part of Sudan. In 2011 South Sudan gained independence after a brutal civil war, and its estimated that South Sudan now has 4x more oil than Sudan. It's logical to assume that the United States no longer sees Sudan as a geopolitically advantageous investment for their natural-resource pillaging War Machine.
Three months ago protest erupted in Sudan, citizens took to the streets and demanded that President Bashir step down. The protest spread countrywide as citizens rebelled against the rising cost of food and growing outrage over Sudan Public Order Law which has led to over 15,000 Sudanese women being sentenced to lashings in 2017 alone. In response to these nationwide protest, President Bashir has censored the Internet, consolidated power and recently passed a law that makes any protest illegal. Sudanese government forces are detaining and in some cases even torturing protesters while threatening that any form of dissent will be met with harsh violence and long-term imprisonment.
President Bashir is a perfect example of a dictator, and the evidence of his dictatorship is on full display for the world to see. Mainstream media has widely ignored the protest in Sudan, there are no calls to send humanitarian aid, no calls for President Bashir to step down, and no threat of military intervention from the United States. Why?
I am in no way calling for military intervention in Sudan or imposing more sanctions on them I am merely pointing out that if officials in the United States or talking heads on mainstream media truly cared about the human rights of others then clearly they should be outraged by what is happening in Sudan, but they aren't. Why is the United States so concerned about what is happening in Venezuela suddenly? One word, oil. The oil lobby is deeply ingrained in corporate media and media has to adhere to their advertisers and sponsors or they would be broke. John Bolton told the world on Fox News that American oil companies would love to take control of Venezuela's vast oil reserves.
This exposes not only mainstream media for the War Machine technicians that they are but it also exposes Senators like Marco Rubio and government officials like John Bolton, Elliot Abrams and Mike Pompeo for lying to the world and of being warmongering propagandists as well. The calls for Maduro to hand over power to Guaido will undoubtedly grow louder and the unrest in Sudan will undoubtedly become more violent. This will solemnly continue to expose mainstream media, the government of the United States and any other nation as well as any public figure that has called for Maduro to step down for in the very least selectively caring about the human rights of others. Negligence is not a valid excuse for being morally inept and consciously ignoring the fact that the U.S. policy of interventionism has never solved a humanitarian crisis, it has only created them.
Written by Joziah Thayer - You can fallow me on Twitter @ Dapeaple - Please check out wedacoalition.org for my podcast and more articles