<div dir="ltr">Amanda is a graduate of Uni High circa 1999 who now writes for the NYT, including as the "interpreter."<div><br></div><div>At the end of this Vox article from 2016 she wrote: </div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="color:rgb(76,78,77);font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;text-decoration-line:inherit">In his speech in the Parque de la Memoria, Obama stood before a wall that bears the names of thousands of people murdered by the government we supported, and</span><span style="color:rgb(76,78,77);font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;text-decoration-line:inherit"> </span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/03/24/remarks-president-obama-and-president-macri-argentina-parque-de-la" style="font-family:inherit;background-color:transparent;font-style:inherit;box-sizing:border-box;text-decoration:inherit;vertical-align:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(79,113,119);border-bottom:1px solid transparent;font-weight:600">said</a><span style="color:rgb(76,78,77);font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;text-decoration-line:inherit"> </span><span style="color:rgb(76,78,77);font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;text-decoration-line:inherit">that we cannot forget the past, but that by confronting it we will build a better future.</span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(76,78,77);font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;text-decoration-line:inherit"><br></span></div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;text-decoration-line:inherit;vertical-align:inherit;font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.2rem;padding:0px;color:rgb(76,78,77)">And he's right, but it's a lesson that doesn't just apply to regimes and atrocities that are safely in the past. The United States has still not come to terms with the real lesson of its support for Argentina's military junta, which is that when the US sacrifices human rights in order to further other foreign policy objectives, it eventually ends up on the wrong side of history.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;text-decoration-line:inherit;vertical-align:inherit;font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.2rem;padding:0px;color:rgb(76,78,77)">Last year, Vox's Matt Yglesias <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/2/11/8020187/obama-interview-human-rights" style="box-sizing:border-box;text-decoration:inherit;vertical-align:inherit;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(79,113,119);border-bottom:1px solid transparent;font-weight:600;background-color:transparent">asked</a> Obama whether he was concerned about the human rights records of <b>US allies such as Egypt, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. </b>The president's answer was an unsatisfying dodge. Obama hedged, saying that the US has to press for human rights improvements while also pursuing other national security objectives — to "do both things."</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;text-decoration-line:inherit;vertical-align:inherit;font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.2rem;padding:0px;color:rgb(76,78,77)">Doing "both things" sure sounds nice. But, as I <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/2/11/8020187/obama-interview-human-rights" style="box-sizing:border-box;text-decoration:inherit;vertical-align:inherit;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(79,113,119);border-bottom:1px solid transparent;font-weight:600;background-color:transparent">wrote</a> at the time, that doesn't answer the real question of when it is worthwhile for the US to pursue improvements in human rights at the expense of other objectives.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;text-decoration-line:inherit;vertical-align:inherit;font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.2rem;padding:0px;color:rgb(76,78,77)">It seems that it is easier to make speeches apologizing for our failures to live up to our values in the past than it is to make the hard choices to live up to them now, today."</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;text-decoration-line:inherit;vertical-align:inherit;font-family:Balto,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.2rem;padding:0px;color:rgb(76,78,77)"><a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/3/28/11317904/obama-argentina-dirty-war" style="">https://www.vox.com/2016/3/28/11317904/obama-argentina-dirty-war</a>  <br></p></div>